April 5, 2007
Updated Bottle Bill headed to Senate floor
Michelle Cole
Bottled water buyers will have to shell out a nickel deposit on every bottle they buy with a bill that passed out of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday afternoon on a 3-2 vote.
Senate Bill 707 is the first major update since Oregon's landmark Bottle Bill was first passed in 1971.
In addition to beer and carbonated soda cans and bottles, plastic bottled water and "flavored water" bottles would be added to the list of beverage containers requiring a nickel deposit. Consumers would start paying the nickel on bottled water effective Jan. 1, 2009, according to the bill now headed to a full Senate floor vote.
In an interview, Sen. Brad Avakian, a Democrat from Bethany and chair of the Environment committee, said there is no definition for "flavored water." It could include tea, he said. "We decided to let the market determine what it would include."
The bill also creates a task force to study the question of whether the nickel per bottle or can deposit (the same amount that was collected with the Bottle Bill took effect in 1972) should be raised to a dime or more.
Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Central Point, and Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, voted against the update.
The three Democrats on the committee, Avakian, Sen. Floyd Prozanski, Eugene, and Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, voted yes.
However Bates noted in committee that he was disappointed that a work group that met several times to hash out issues related to the Bottle Bill were not able to reach consensus on some of the grocers' concerns.
Grocers oppose expansion of the Bottle Bill because they say are already "maxed out" on the number of bottles and cans piling up in stores and creating unsanitary conditions.
Recycling advocates had hoped an updated Bottle Bill would include not just water but also juice, sports drinks and even wine and liquor bottles. Negotiations continue between the grocers and the Association of Recyclers on a plan that would set up bottle and can redemption centers outside the stores and would allow for all beverage containers to be returned.
Avakian said the water bottle-only bill would proceed to a Senate floor vote but he urged the recyclers and grocers to keep talking.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/politics/2007/04/updated_bottle_bill_headed_to.html
