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:
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