By Phaedra Booth
As the Oregon
Legislature winds to a close this June, Recycling Advocates likely
will not see as many victories as we had hoped this session, but the
fight is not over yet. Luckily, 3 of our priority bills are still
alive and we will continue to shepherd them through the final stages
of the law-making process. Leadership has indicated they are
steadfast in their June 30th adjournment deadline, so this gives us
a few short weeks to put these bills in motion.
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HB 2184-B, the
current Bottle Bill enhancement, is still in Chair Roblan’s
House Revenue committee—with no hearing scheduled. There are
many reasons Oregon needs an improved Bottle Bill:
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HB 2184-B
encourages greater recycling. An estimated 10 billion containers
will be recycled over the next 20 years as a result of HB 2184,
according to the Oregon DEQ. This is 10 billion containers
staying out of our landfills and off our roadsides, reducing the
need for new plastics.
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HB 2184-B saves
energy. An estimated 25 trillion Btu's will be saved over the
next 20 years, according to the DEQ. This is equivalent to
providing electricity to nearly 10,000 homes for the same time
period.
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HB 2184-B reduces
global warming pollution. According to a report by the
Governor’s Advisory Group on Global Warming, recycling decreases
the use of materials with high lifecycle greenhouse gas
emissions, decreases burning of fossil-derived wastes such as
plastics, reduces the emissions of methane from landfills, and
recovers energy generated during the combustion of wastes and
methane at disposal sites. The DEQ estimates HB 2184-B will
prevent 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the
next 20 years.
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HB 2184-B keeps
our roadsides clear. Oregon's roads are threatened with the
trash from the more than 500 million containers not currently
covered by the Bottle Bill. With these millions of bottles not
covered by the Bottle Bill, there is little incentive to prevent
or collect roadside litter. In a time of state budget cuts that
may affect litter pick-up programs, it is especially critical to
limit roadside trash by strengthening the Bottle Bill.
As you already know,
Oregon led the nation in creating the first Bottle Bill. Now is
definitely time for Oregon to make the Bottle Bill work for all
beverage containers. HB 2184-B is very much a cost-effective way to
keep our roadsides clear, encourage greater recycling, save energy,
and reduce pollution in a time of steep budget cuts. Recycling
Advocates is working diligently to ensure HB 2184-B is heard in the
House Revenue Committee and passed to the House floor for a vote.
The second of our
three bills has been amended into a simple reporting bill. HB 3465
aims to make our Bottle Bill return system more transparent and
accountable by requiring the state’s beverage distributors to report
on the number of cans and bottles sold each year and the number
returned for deposit annually.
At present, when we
throw deposit containers away or put them in curbside recycling
rather than redeeming them, the five cent deposit is retained not by
the state, but by the beverage distributors. DEQ estimates
distributors receive a windfall of $20-30 million every year from
unredeemed deposits. This is decidedly more than they need to
administer the Bottle Bill, which distributors claim the money is
used for.
Simple accounting
will give the public - and legislators - hard numbers on how
successful the redemption program is, and how many of the deposits
are actually staying with the distributors. HB 3465 will also
require that distributors report their progress on creating
redemption centers.
The bill also
promotes good government. The reported information will be critical
for improving redemption rates, keeping litter off the streets, and
diverting recycling from landfills. The bill passed out of the House
Revenue Committee on June 3 on a party-line vote, but will likely be
re-referred back to Revenue while we gather support in the House.
And lastly, our final
piece: HB 3037-A is alive and well. This bill establishes an
environmentally sound and cost effective pilot recycling program for
household paint and directs paint manufacturers to create a program
which will collect, transport and process post-consumer paint for
end-of-life management. Included in this bill is statewide
collection of household paint in distribution centers across urban
and rural areas of the state, as well as a requirement to report to
DEQ.
The last of Recycling
Advocates' 2009 Product Stewardship bills, HB 3037-A demonstrates
industry-initiated stewardship and still highlights the need in
Oregon for framework legislation to address a variety of
post-consumer materials. Even if we aren’t able to obtain the larger
infrastructure similar to the E-Cycles program this session, HB
3037-A is helpful because of the continued strong support it has
received from the paint industry and because it raises the bar. We
expect to see HB 3037 scheduled for a work session in Ways and Means
very soon and are optimistic about its prospects for passage.
Read this
and other articles of interest to the recycling community in our
monthly newsletter
