Oregon Bottle Bill (Recycling in Oregon)

Oregon needs to fix or trash the bottle bill

Oregon’s Bottle bill has become the laughing stock of the recycling industry. Back in 1993 when (out of necessity) I started recycling cardboard in California, the paper recycler told me that California was thinking of going the way of Oregon, he stated that funny thing was that Oregon and Michigan were the laughing stocks of the industry and that if California went the way of Oregon, they would pull out, even though they did not even handle cans or bottles.

The problem is Oregon’s system pushes out private recyclers (outside of the companies that make the good for nothing redemption machines). Vastly more people are employed by California’s system which also pays scrap value and allows recyclers to profitably pay for paper and other items that here in Grants Pass are useless. Also there is not the dangerous contamination of dirty cans being placed in shopping carts or handled by store clerks. The retail community, led by the Northwest Grocery Association which rightfully opposes a bottle bill expansion because they say the process can create sanitation problems if fresh food and drippy drink containers share storage space is correct in opposing an expansion.
This system also discourages return due to the very slow, often broken, very fussy machines that can take ½ hour to get back a maximum $7.20 in redemption. This is also a silly part of the law is this $7.20 limit (although not strictly enforced by many markets if the customer purchases with the store).

We should be able to crush cans a plastic bottles and return via weight versus the often difficult to red UPC codes used by Oregon machines


Oregon either needs a system like California or pure free enterprise, and to stop the arrogance of Oregon leaders (such as the past Oregon Rep., Gordon Anderson) who cannot see past all the problems we have with this dirty, wretched, anti free enterprise system here in Oregon.

The Oregon legislature brags about the solid waste recycling rate, yet Oregon has a rate of 38% compared to Washington with a rate of 34.82%, a statistical match, yet Washington has NO bottle bill. The point is; The bottle bill kills free enterprise and non-redemption recycling too, such as paper.
Proponents have told me that Oregon pays more than California; NOT TRUE!
Due to the free enterprise system at work in California a $.035 can be worth as much as $.12 after scrap value is added (I am referring to a large beer can here).

Also you can smash the cans and plastic, and due to the profitability, you can often bring in paper and cardboard too, as the California system makes profitable for the recyclers to do so. As of this post cans are worth $1.45 per lb. and newspaper is worth $.04 per lb (it adds up fast too).


When I was trying to raise extra money in LA collecting cans, paper, bottles, etc, businesses appreciated it asked me where I had been on the early mornings that I did not do this.
I personally have picked cans, bottles and paper here in Grant Pass to take to California where I could make money and have been heckled with profanity by business owners here in Grants Pass (The 76 station on Rogue River Hwy was one of many), what kind of recycling environment do we really have here? Answer, NONE.

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