The bill would require customers to explicitly ask for plastic utensils, single-serving plastic packaging for condiments and plastic-packaged hospitality size shampoos, soaps and lotions
By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
Since the Oregon Legislature voted to ban single-use plastic grocery bags and limit plastic straws in 2019, most Oregonians have grown used to bringing their own bags to the store and asking for straws.
Now, lawmakers looking to stop plastic from piling up on the state’s beaches are turning their attention to other plastic utensils, condiment packaging and hotel-issued toiletries. The Oregon Senate voted 22-8 on Tuesday to pass Senate Bill 551, which would expand the state’s plastic bag ban to cover takeout bags provided by restaurants and the thicker plastic bags some stores have offered since the original ban took effect in 2020.
The bill would also require customers to explicitly ask for plastic utensils, single-serving plastic packaging for condiments like ketchup, coffee creamer, jelly and soy sauce and plastic-packaged hospitality size shampoos, soaps and lotions, like they already must ask for straws.
Sen. Janeen Sollman, the Hillsboro Democrat behind the bill, said it will be good for the environment and for businesses that will save money by buying fewer plastic goods.
“I want to be clear, this is not a ban on all plastic, but a mere drop in the plastic deluge of products we encounter every day,” Sollman said. “If we can do a bill that saves business dollars along the way, that is a win.”
The proposal won support from all Democrats and four Republicans. Three of those Republicans — Sens. David Brock Smith of Port Orford, Dick Anderson of Lincoln City and Suzanne Weber of Tillamook — represent coastal districts, and Brock Smith said his experience on Oregon’s beaches contributed to his vote for the bill.
“I can’t go to Port Orford and walk the beach — as I love to do, because everything’s better at the beach — and not find plastic on my beaches,” Brock Smith said. “I go up the rivers and there’s beautiful and amazing camping sites that are free to stay at, and it’s littered with plastic bags, plastic silverware. I have found the small shampoo and conditioners and soaps in the past, and frankly, that needs to change.”
He added that the fishing, pulp and paper industries, all prominent in his district, will support removing plastic because cleaner water helps fish and the paper industry wants to produce more recyclable paper bags and wrapping that can be used instead of plastic.
Sen. Todd Nash, R-Enterprise, lives far from the ocean but said he voted for the bill because of the timber industry.
Other Republicans were less convinced. Sen. Kim Thatcher, a Keizer Republican who voted against the bill, said her dogs would look forward to it because they’d have easier access to saucy Chinese takeout that leaks out of folding boxes and can now be contained by a plastic bag.
And Sen. Noah Robinson, R-Cave Junction, said he opposes littering but loves plastic. Stores, restaurants and hotels should have the freedom to choose the products they think are best for their customers, he said.
“Banning the plastic that is on those beaches is not the solution. It’s just teaching people better practices and trying to control littering,” he said.
The bill now heads to the House. If it becomes law, it would ban all plastic bags and automatically offering plastic utensils and condiments as of July 2026 and ban plastic packaging on single-use hotel toiletries as of July 2027.
Julia Shumway has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix, Arizona.
