May 27, 2011
Legislature approves expanded Oregon bottle deposit law
SALEM, ORE. (May 27, 12:45 p.m. ET) -- Oregon has overhauled its bottle bill for the second time in the past four years, and transformed it into the most extensive bottle bill in the United States. The new version adds virtually all on-the-go beverages that range in size from four ounces to 1.5 liters, starting no later than Jan. 1, 2018.
The expanded bottle deposit law, approved by the Senate May 25, will add the same nickel deposit that currently only applies to soft drinks, beer, water and flavored water bottles to non-carbonated juices, sports drinks, energy drinks, coffees, teas and most other on-the-go beverages.
The exceptions: deposits won’t apply to dairy products, infant formula, liquor and wines.
Water bottles and flavored water bottles were added to the Oregon bottle deposit system in 2009 because of a law passed in May 2007. The expansion of the bill, HB 3145 is awaiting the signature of Gov. John Kitzhaber. Just as the original bill, which was passed in 1971, the expansion applies to plastic, glass and metal containers, bottles and cans.
“It is very, very good that Oregon is taking this step to expand” its bottle bill, said Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute in Culver City, Calif. “It will lead to higher recycling rates for the new containers that are being added and for the other beverage containers as well. A rising tide lifts all.”
“It gets us more material,” said Steve Alexander, executive director of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers, based in Washington. “We are generally hopefully that it will generate more material for reclaimers.”
HB 3145 also critically creates the framework for shifting the returns for the majority of bottles from stores to off-site beverage redemption centers---which the Northwest Grocery Association said is crucial because it allows the grocery industry to plan for the needed investment in beverage redemption centers.
“We are very supportive of the bill,” said Joe Gilliam, NGA president. “It addressed expansion of the type of beverages covered, it addressed recycling rates, and it did it in a way that industry can plan and make investments in a responsible way that makes the beverage centers more efficient and with higher capacity.”
The bill permits the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, created as part of the 2007 bill, to build a redemption center that would serve consumers within a three-mile radius. OBRC manages 95 percent of the recyclable bottles collected as part of the state’s bottle bill.
The two current OBRC redemption centers in Wood Village and Oregon City—which have been open for less than a year—are restricted to taking back materials from customers within a 1.5 radius. The centers are built and run by OBRC with retailers sharing in the costs.
Gilliam said the first larger redemption center would be outside of the Portland area. “We are looking at the possibility of Eugene or Salem right now” for the pilot, he said. “We have to have a location that is really convenient for consumers.
To date, the two smaller redemption centers, both in the Portland area, have been redeeming more bottles and cans than the nearby grocery stores even though the projection was that the redemption levels would be similar. Gilliam credited the use of reverse vending machines, and, in particular, a bag drop system that allows consumer to drop off cans in pre-marked bags and get credited for them online, rather than waiting for them to be counted.
But what pleases Gilliam—and the grocers—is that the bill requires “that the infrastructure [for collection] has to be built before you increase [expand] the deposit collection program.”
“We now know what to invest for and over what timeframe,” said Gilliam. “It is much more a business model approach than a political reactionary approach. Most legislation in the past put the cart before the horse and created chaos.”
The bill also built into accountability by adding a provision that the deposit will increase to 10 cents per container if the redemption rate for any specific material drops below 80 percent for two consecutive years after 2016. The current overall redemption rate in Oregon is around 75 percent, and deposits have remained at a nickel since the original bottle bill was passed.
“That holds everybody accountable,” said Gilliam. “But based on the data from the current beverage centers, we believe that we will be able to keep the redemption rate above 80 percent. This concept is unique because government isn’t involved and industry will run it.”
The original Oregon bottle bill was the first bottle bill in the U.S. The deposits on the new containers added by HB 3145 are scheduled to go into effect one year after 60 percent of soft drink and water bottles are redeemed at the new redemption centers, or by 2018 at the latest.
“By expanding the redemption system to cover all beverage containers, we will save more than 72 million containers per year from landfills,” said Rep. Ben Cannon, D-Portland, one of the bill’s sponsors. “By encouraging the development of redemption centers, we are making the system more convenient for consumers. And by increasing the deposit if redemption rates fall, we are ensuring that Oregon will restore its place as a national leader in container recycling.”
Currently, 1.1 billion containers annually are returned in Oregon.
Oregon legislators estimated that roughly 171 million non-deposit juices, teas, coffees, and sports drinks are sold in Oregon annually, with only one third of them recycled. Soft drink bottles and cans are recycled in Oregon at a rate of roughly 75 percent.
“That bill is very good for us,” said Bruce Sone, project manager for the Orpet 20 million- to 25 million-pound PET recycling plant under construction in St. Helens, Ore., north of Portland, that is scheduled to start up in November.
But clearly, how smoothly the addition of the new beverages to the deposit program works “will depend a lot on the redemption centers, which are at the heart of this bill,” said Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, one of the two chief co-sponsors of the bill and whose father led the campaign for the state’s original bottle bill.
“Once we get to redemption centers that are easy and convenient, we will get to more redemption of the materials already covered in the bottle bill, and the public will find it more convenient,” said Berger. “But first, we have to build a better system than the corner of a grocery store. I sincerely believe we will not have to go to a dime” deposit.
But there are some skeptics about the planned shift in how and where bottles will be redeemed in Oregon.
“My skeptical mind tells me that it is just another stalling tactic by the industry and that they will fight it” some way, said Pat Franklin, the retired executive director and founder of CRI. “It sounds to me that they [bottlers] felt that the bill wouldn’t be repealed so they worked to get it working in a way that suits them.”
Ten states in the U.S. currently have bottle bills, with California, Maine, Michigan and Vermont charging deposits of 10 cents or more. Six of the 10 states include water and beer bottles, in addition to soft drinks. California, Maine and Hawaii—and now Oregon—also include non-carbonated beverages.
The states with bottle bills collect more PET bottles than the other 40 states in the U.S. combined, and have recycling rates of 70-95 percent compared to recycling rates of less than 30 percent in non-bottle bill states.
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