The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act rules were approved by the Environmental Quality Commission to reduce waste from packaging
By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
Starting this summer, Oregonians across the state will begin to receive a standardized list of what can and cannot be recycled statewide, and owners and managers of apartment complexes and multi-unit housing will need to prepare to provide recycling for residents.
These are among new rules around recycling finalized Friday by Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission following four years of negotiation and planning. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act will go into effect July 1, 2025, making it easier for Oregonians to recycle. It will establish new packaging fees for companies selling products in Oregon, based on the weight and recyclability of the material.
Hard-to-recycle materials, such as plastics, will command higher fees from companies than products that are easily recycled, ideally incentivizing producers to choose lighter, more sustainable materials. This follows regulations in Oregon in recent years that require manufacturers to pick up some of the end-of-life costs of paint, mattresses and electronics, or to invest in programs to recycle such products.
“Part of the goal is to move companies into more recyclable materials. There is a cost to packaging that needs to be internalized,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, who championed the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act in the legislature in 2021.
The rules also give authority to collect and invest some new packaging fees to the Circular Action Alliance, or CCA, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. Local governments and the alliance will be in charge of reinvesting fees in projects that improve Oregon’s recycling infrastructure. The alliance was formed in 2022 by 20 multinational corporations in the food, beverage, retail and consumer goods industries, including Amazon, CocaCola and Nestle. It oversees similar recycling programs that are rolling out as a result of new policies in California, Colorado, Maine and Maryland.
Under Oregon’s new rules, environmental officials will release a standardized list of items that can be recycled across the state beginning this summer. Owners and managers of multi-family buildings, such as duplexes and apartment buildings, will also need to eventually provide recycling services for residents.
Two other bills passed in Oregon in 2023 will require manufacturers to label products to indicate whether and where they can be recycled in Oregon and ban the use of styrofoam containers for takeout food. The latter, Senate Bill 543, will go into effect in January. Rules under Senate Bill 123, the Smart Labeling Bill, must be finalized by 2027.
No nation on earth produces more plastic waste than the U.S., according to a 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The average person in the U.S. in 1980 produced about 60 pounds of plastic waste per year. Today, each person in the U.S. produces more than 200 pounds of plastic waste each year, according to the EPA. Up to 2 million metric tons of that waste escapes into the environment each year, and much of it ends up in waterways and oceans, eventually becoming microplastics.
The nonprofit Environment Oregon tested 30 rivers and lakes around the state in 2021 and found detectable levels of microplastics in all of them.
Despite efforts to improve plastic recycling, no more than 9% of plastic waste generated in the U.S. each year gets recycled, according to EPA.
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.
