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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017 Oregon residents cash in on hike in bottle, can refunds Refund doubled from 5 to 10 cents By KRISTENA HANSEN Associated Press PORTLAND — Some of the most thrifty, eco-conscious Oregon residents, each hauling hundreds of used water bottles and soda cans in trash bags and carts, flocked to bottle-recy- cling centers and grocery stores Saturday — the first day the per-bottle refund rate doubled to 10 cents. Oregon was the first state in the nation to give 5-cent refunds for recycling used soda cans and glass bottles more than 45 years ago through its so-called Bottle Bill. Today, with other recycling options now com- monplace, this eco-trailblazing Pacific Northwest state is hop- ing to revamp the program by doubling that refund on bottled and canned water, soda, beer and malt beverages — regard- less what their labels say. The most frugal of Orego- nians have been hoarding bot- tles for months in anticipa- tion of the roll-out. Even the press pool at the state Capitol in Salem has been buying cases of water bottles and stockpiling the empties to pay for a pizza party. Many grocery stores and the 20 or so bottle redemption sites across the state were bus- tling with activity, as expected, on Saturday. Steady traffic A newly-built BottleDrop redemption site in north Port- land had heavy foot traffic steadily throughout the day that employees say is usually only seen during peak hours on the typical Saturday. Portland resident Sarah Marshall says she and her brother come to the BottleDrop location about once a month. This time, though, she says they’ll walk away with about $75, which helps pay for things like gas and various errands. Oregon’s 1971 Bottle Bill, groundbreaking for its era in combating litter, has been rep- licated in nine other states plus the U.S. territory of Guam. Michigan is the only other with an across-the-board payout as high as 10 cents per bottle, although booze and other large bottles carry a 10-cent payout in California and 15 cents in Maine and Vermont. The system was a big hit in those initial years. But as curb- side recycling and pickup ser- vices were brought on board two decades later — not to mention inflationary effects on the nickel’s value — the rates AP Photo/Kristena Hansen Residents formed steady lines at a BottleDrop recycling redemption center in Portland on Saturday, the first day the refund rate for empty water bottles, beer bottles and soda cans jumped to 10 cents. at which Oregonians cashed in their bottles and cans gradually tumbled from 90 percent aver- ages to under 70 percent of all bottle sales statewide in 2014 and 2015. Triggered by decline That decline thus triggered the new 10-cent rate — a pro- vision that lawmakers added in 2011 to the Bottle Bill in 2011. Naysayers, meanwhile, are quick to criticize the higher amount as bad policy during a time of crisis for Oregon’s upcoming budget, where jobs and taxes are on the line to help close a whopping $1.6 billion deficit. Among the 10 Bottle Bill states, Oregon and Iowa dif- fer in that private beverage industry, rather than state gov- ernment, operates their bot- tle programs and claims all the unredeemed refunds. Oregonians cashed in slightly more than 1 billion bot- tles and cans in 2015, roughly two-thirds of total sales that year, according to a report to the Legislature by the Ore- gon Liquor Control Commis- sion, which aids distributors in administering program oper- ations. The remaining third equates to almost $30 million in gross unredeemed refunds claimed by local and national distributors such as Pepsi, Pendleton Bottle Co. and Ore- gon Beverage Recycling Coop- erative participants. Some of those funds help beverage distributors operate the program that involves trans- porting recyclables to process- ing sites and reimbursing gro- cery stores, which don’t make a profit but are still required to accept empty containers and refund consumers. participating in the Oregon co-op are using the funds to build, operate and staff upscale stand-alone redemption sites like the Bottle Drop location in north Portland, which relieves nearby grocery stores of the responsibility. The process has been slow-going, however, with pushback from local com- munities and land-use issues, although the co-op is now ret- rofitting huge shipping contain- ers as an alternative. State Sen. Betsy Johnson, a Democrat from Scappoose, said the co-op’s slow building and shift away from some gro- cery retailers have been among her concerns for smaller com- munities like hers. But she and others respect that it’s part of Oregon’s identity. “The rationale was, we don’t want this crap all over the roads and the beach, it’s gross. And so if you give them money to take them back some place, everybody wins,” she said. N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 CALLING ALL CONTRACTORS You’re Invited! Learn about the Seaside School District Bond Program Tuesday, April 4th • 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm Seaside Heights Elementary School 2000 Spruce Drive, Seaside, OR 97138 By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — A bill to expand the hours of self- serve gas stations in rural counties in Eastern Oregon is headed to the state Senate, after the House unanimously passed it last week. The bill allows 24-hour self service at stations in certain counties. Those sta- tions would still be required to have attendants between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., however. The legislation by state Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, expands on a law passed in 2015 that allowed self-ser- vice between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in 18 coun- ties with a population of less than 40,000. The idea was to protect travelers from being stranded in remote places. Oregon is one of only two states that prohibit customers from pumping their own gas at fueling stations. The other is New Jersey. In Eastern Oregon, some locally owned gas stations have been at risk of closure due to the expense of hiring fueling attendants to pump customers’ gas, Bentz said. “We are trying to preserve these stations out in the mid- dle of nowhere so that we have fuel available,” Bentz said earlier this month. The proposed change affects 15 counties in East- ern Oregon: Malhuer, Union, Wasco, Hood River, Jeffer- son, Crook, Baker, Morrow, Lake, Grant, Harney, Wal- lowa, Gilliam, Sherman and Wheeler. The original proposal included Clatsop, Curry and Tillamook counties. How- ever, opposition to expanding self-service hours prompted proponents to carve out those coastal counties. Opponents feared the change would threaten the jobs of those who pump fuel for a living. Pulitzer Prize Winning Author and Journalist Buzz Bissinger A Columbia Forum Presentation Buzz Bissinger is among the nation’s most honored and distinguished writers. A native of New York City, Buzz is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and the National Headliners Award, among others. He also was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is the author of the highly acclaimed nonfi ction books: Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in August, Shooting Stars and Father’s Day. But critics like Dan Meek, a Portland attorney and Ore- gon Progressive Party spokes- man, said at least some of that unclaimed cash should go into state coffers for educa- tion, health care or other pub- lic services. More recently, distributors Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Bill does not include Clatsop A PRIL 6 Unclaimed cash W A NTED Expansion of self-serve gas heads to state Senate Buzz has been a reporter for some of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers; a magazine writer with published work in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated; and a co-producer and writer for the ABC television drama NYPD Blue. Two of his works were made into the critically acclaimed fi lms: Friday Night Lights and Shattered Glass . Three more are in active development. Friday Night Lights also served as the inspiration for the television series of the same name. TO ATTEND: LIMIT ColumbiaForum FOR RESERVATIONS OR TO JOIN COLUMBIA FORUM CONTACT: Holly Larkins at 503.325.3211 ext. 227 or forum@dailyastorian.com by April 3, 2017 Columbia Forum is sponsored by: The Daily Astorian • Craft3 • OSU Seafood Laboratory • KMUN-FM Cannery Pier Hotel & Spa They’re your dreams. 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