Reduce, Reuse, Recycle In the News

by Mara Gross, Brock Howell, Chris Hagerbaumer and Rhett Lawrence, guest opinion

In these economic times, it is difficult to fund necessary public services. Oregonians led the nation with the first Bottle Bill in 1971, and it has been highly successful in providing a convenient return of bottles to grocery stores in exchange for refunding a nickel deposit. The Bottle Bill has helped keep our roads litter-free, has encouraged recycling, saved energy and helped reduce global warming pollution.

Unfortunately, our Bottle Bill is falling behind. The annual beverage container return rate in Oregon has fallen from more than 90 percent to less than 80 percent. Millions of bottles remain uncovered by the law, including sport drink and fruit juice bottles. And to cap that off, millions of dollars of consumers' deposits remain unaccounted for and kept as windfall profit by distributors.

This is why the Coalition for a Livable Future, Environment Oregon and the Oregon Environmental Council urge House Bills 3465 and 2184-B be heard and passed by the House Revenue Committee. HB 3465 requires distributors to account for an estimated $20 million to $30 million in unrefunded deposits and report this information to the state. HB 2184-B covers sport drinks, juice and similar noncarbonated drinks beginning in 2013; establishes an annual return rate goal of at least 80 percent in 2015 onward, and increases the nickel deposit to a dime in 2017 if the 80 percent goal is not met.

HB 3465 and 2184-B are critical to providing consumers and taxpayers with the accountability they expect, keeping our roads clear, encouraging greater recycling and saving energy.

Consumers expect their nickel deposits be used for recycling purposes. Taxpayers expect the Bottle Bill to work as efficiently as possible. These concerns are heightened in a time of double-digit unemployment and a $4 billion state budget deficit. Requiring distributors to report how much in unrefunded bottle deposits they collect will provide greater accountability and help ensure the Bottle Bill works more effectively in the future.

Oregon's roads are threatened with the trash from the more than 500 million containers not currently covered by the Bottle Bill. With these millions of bottles not covered, there is little incentive to prevent or collect roadside litter. In a time of state budget cuts that may affect litter pick-up programs ("More roadside trash? Blame Washington state budget cuts," May 31), a stronger Bottle Bill will help avoid more roadside litter.

An estimated 10 billion containers will be recycled over the next 20 years as a result of HB 2184, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. That's 10 billion containers staying out of our landfills and off our roadsides, reducing the need for new plastics.

And the DEQ estimates 25 trillion British thermal units will be saved over the next 20 years. How? Recycling decreases the use of materials with high lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, decreases the burning of fossil-derived wastes such as plastics, reduces the emissions of methane from landfills, and recovers energy generated during the combustion of wastes and methane at disposal sites. The saved energy is equivalent to providing electricity to nearly 10,000 homes and preventing 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 20 years.

Oregon led the nation in creating the first Bottle Bill. Now it's time for Oregon to make the law work for all beverage containers. House Bills 3465 and 2184-B provide greater accountability and a cost-effective way to keep our roadsides clear, encourage greater recycling, save energy and reduce pollution in a time of steep budget cuts.

Mara Gross is policy director for the Coalition for a Livable Future. Brock Howell is an advocate for Environment Oregon. Chris Hagerbaumer is deputy director of the Oregon Environmental Council. Rhett Lawrence is co-president of Recycling Advocates.