April 9, 2011
EDITORIAL
The bottle bill of the future
Oregon’s landmark law is due for an update
Much has changed in the 40 years since Oregon became the first state to require a deposit on beer and soda pop cans and bottles. Recycling programs have grown. Bottled beverages have proliferated, including many that aren’t covered by the bottle bill. And if the nickel deposit mandated by the 1971 law had kept pace with inflation, the deposit would be 25 cents today. It’s time for an update.
The Legislature last amended the bottle bill in 2007, requiring a 5-cent deposit on plastic water bottles. Lawmakers are considering further revisions this year. House Bill 3145 would increase the deposit to 10 cents if the state determines that fewer than 80 percent of containers are being returned. It would add a deposit for containers of sports drinks, teas, juices and other noncarbonated drinks. It would also create a pilot program for privately run redemption centers — people would return containers for a refund of their deposit at the centers rather than at grocery stores.
Redemption centers could be the key to a grand compromise on a bottle bill expansion. Grocers have long been reluctant partners in the deposit-and-return cycle, even though they make a nickel on every unreturned container. Processing the returns requires labor, space and equipment. Bottles and cans that are dirty or partially full of stale beer or flat soda create sanitation problems. Increasing the volume of returnable containers would worsen those headaches.
Several states, including California, have container-return systems featuring redemption centers, and Oregon is testing the concept in two Portland-area locations. At the Oregon centers, people drop off their containers for sorting and counting, and deposit refunds are credited to a card whose balance can be redeemed for cash. The concept has promise, as long as the centers were numerous and convenient enough to ensure a high redemption rate.
It might be possible to retain grocery-store redemptions for small numbers of containers. But with a robust redemption center program, grocers might drop their resistance to placing deposits on more containers. That’s the likely future of the bottle bill.
http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26103160-47/deposit-bill-containers-bottle-centers.html.csp
