Oregon Bottle Bill, Can Recycling Review; Aluminum, Plastic, etc.

 

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UPDATE 5-30-18

Oregon is now opening "Bottle Drop" Centers across the state as a hopeful improvement on their very outdated bottle recycling program.

Here are a few POSITIVES after using this for more than a year:

• Great idea in concept as per customer convenience


• 20% Additional in credit when used at participating grocers for food or other items. DEFINITELY a help and awesome idea for those who use recycling as a way to make ends meet!!


• MUCH cleaner than the old grocery store machines!

Here are a few NEGATIVES after using this for more than a year:

• Very disorganized and under staffed


• Often the drop box is full and unless during staff hours, you just wasted your time.
  If during business hours, you risk not getting a scan and without the check of your card on the door, you might have then just given away your bags for free.


• While an organized business model would insist on an immediate scan to protect the customers from fraud and loss, it is often a "Crap shoot" if you will get a timely scan (often a day can go by), and then you may not get one at all at which point you just lost your bottles possibly to fraud.
  Then actual counts can be days


• Often there is conflicting information given, depending upon who you speak with. This includes whether the "OR" on certain bottles/cans means it actually has redemption value even if purchased in Oregon.
  
  Here are just a few conflicting things I have been told depending upon time and person:
  
  • All Bottles must be in containers, no bags may touch the floor, yet I see this all the time
  • "OR" redemption value for Dutch Brothers cans
  • Always go to the door for bags, yet I've had my way blocked by surly staff with cones even when already pulled in. As well I've been told to bring in if there is any question, and other times no.
    Or most recently, the door is not working by one staff member then when I run our to my vehicle & come back in told by another staff member that the door is working but he takes my bags anyways only to never get a scan or obviously credit for my bottles ($15 down the toilet)
  • Damaged cans may be hand counted, other times the answer is no
  • You may only use once cart at a time, yet often I see this is not the case with others. So I guess the rules only apply to me?

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ORIGINAL POST:

Oregon needs to fix or trash the bottle bill

OVERVIEW OF WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE OREGON RECYCLING LAW (and these are FACTS as I HAVE Worked within the system)

• It is dirty and unsanitary
• It is extremely slow and discourages returns
• It makes it difficult for charities to return and wastes their valuable time
• It costs stores unnecessary expenses
• It hurts the less fortunate who attempt to supplement their income with bottle return (if you do not believe my experience, just see the comments of a Grants Pass Safeway manager at the end of the article)
• It discourages over all recycling by discouraging for profit private recyclers (again a KNOWN FACT from talking with many out of state recyclers AND MY EXPEREINCE as well since I made as much as $800 per month supplementing my income by recycling when I lived in another state)
• It lessens job opportunities

Oregon’s Bottle bill has become the laughing stock of the recycling industry.
Back in 1993 when (out of necessity) I started recycling cardboard in California, the paper recycler told me that California was thinking of going the way of Oregon, he stated that funny thing was that Oregon and Michigan were the laughing stocks of the industry and that if California went the way of Oregon, they would pull out, even though they did not even handle cans or bottles.

The problem is Oregon’s system pushes out private recyclers (outside of the companies that make the good for nothing redemption machines). Vastly more people are employed by California’s system which also pays scrap value and allows recyclers to profitably pay for paper and other items that here in Grants Pass are useless.

Also there is not the dangerous contamination of dirty cans being placed in shopping carts or handled by store clerks. The retail community, led by the Northwest Grocery Association which rightfully opposes a bottle bill expansion because they say the process can create sanitation problems if fresh food and drippy drink containers share storage space is correct in opposing an expansion.
This system also discourages return due to the very slow, often broken, very fussy machines that can take ½ hour to get back a maximum $7.20 in redemption.
This is also a silly part of the law is this $7.20 limit (although not strictly enforced by many markets if the customer purchases with the store).

We should be able to crush cans a plastic bottles and return via weight versus the often difficult to red UPC codes used by Oregon machines

Oregon either needs a system like California or pure free enterprise, and to stop the arrogance of Oregon leaders (such as the past Oregon Rep., Gordon Anderson) who cannot see past all the problems we have with this dirty, wretched, anti free enterprise system here in Oregon.

SADLY though on Jun 9, 2011 – Our dishonest Gov. John Kitzhaber signed a wide-ranging update to the state's 40-year-old bottle bill system so this baffoon of a governor that the electorate in PORTLANDIA put in office has decided to expand this joke of a bottle bill rather than take some "free enterprise" initiative and revamp it totally!

The Oregon legislature brags about the solid waste recycling rate, yet Oregon has a rate of 38% compared to Washington with a rate of 34.82%, a statistical match, yet Washington has NO bottle bill. The point is; The bottle bill kills free enterprise and non-redemption recycling too, such as paper.
Proponents have told me that Oregon pays more than California; NOT TRUE!
Due to the free enterprise system at work in California a $.035 can be worth as much as $.12 after scrap value is added (I am referring to a large beer can here).
Reference: Grants Pass Oregon, Geography, Climate, Events, Police, Fire, Boatnik, more

Also you can smash the cans and plastic, and due to the profitability, you can often bring in paper and cardboard too, as the California system makes profitable for the recyclers to do so. As of this post cans are worth $1.45 per lb. and newspaper is worth $.04 per lb (it adds up fast too).


When I was trying to raise extra money in LA collecting cans, paper, bottles, etc, businesses appreciated it asked me where I had been on the early mornings that I did not do this.
I personally have picked cans, bottles and paper here in Grant Pass to take to California where I could make money and have been heckled with profanity by business owners here in Grants Pass (The 76 station on Rogue River Hwy was one of many), what kind of recycling environment do we really have here? Answer, NONE.

HERE IS A QUOTE FROM A PORTLANDIA OUT OF CONTROL LIBERAL STATE REPRESENTATIVE.
From (Thankfully Former) Representative Ben Cannon in 2011:
"The Bottle Bill is one of the most successful recycling devices ever invented. More containers should be covered and the deposit should increase if recycling rates drop." All I can say is WOW!!!!!
What planet is this liberal joker from????
No buddy, this system has been a joke for years and no the deposit fees should not increase, as in fact California's 3.5 cent redemption works much better without the messes at supermarkets and much more speedy returns (and more)

Of coarse what do you expect from the guy who proposed a 1900% increase in the Oregon beer tax. The proposed hike would have been the single largest tax increase on the brewing industry in the United States history. This would impact an industry that in Oregon provides 5,200 direct jobs and an estimated 10,000 indirect jobs.
WHO ELECTS THESE ANTI-BUSINESS IDIOTS??????????????

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UPDATE (Sept 2012):

This bottle law makes even simple returns ridiculous!!!

I have made several attempts to return my cans/bottles at the Downtown Safeway in Grants Pass Oregon, only to be met with broken machines and long lines that can take 30 minutes.
My only recourse is to take my cans/bottle to another supermarket and shop there (wasting gasoline too)

Here is what the manager on duty (a Sunday) told me: We attempt to limit these to the $7.20, but we are in a central location with more returns than sales.

While I cannot argue with his facts; I can with the attitude taken.
For one many charities return volumes of bottle that exceed these limits, as well many of our poor citizens use this as a means of supplementing their income (I know I have when denied Food Stamps a few years back even though I was below the poverty level).
As long as we use this system, more working machines should be available and there should be NO limits.

So much for our so-called enlightened liberal state, but then of course liberals like Rep. Ben Cannon and Gov. John Kitzhaber prove with this bottle bill that they care little for the average person not to mention the businesses that have to administer it, WHAT A JOKE!

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