Recycling facilities in Oregon are preparing for some updates, and recyclers may want to start saving up some soon-to-be-accepted items.
Legislators passed Oregon’s Recycling Modernization Act in 2021, and public-facing changes start July 1.
Lane County Master Recycler program coordinator Kelly Bell said residents statewide will have an expanded list of recyclable items, similar to how things were prior to 2018.
"If you recycled milk cartons forever and then, you know, the soy milk boxes came online, those will be coming back," she said. "Things like butter tubs and yogurt tubs, as long as they are two inches on at least two sides, those will be coming back.”
Bell said the rollout will be more of a dial than a switch.
While Eugene and other large communities may see more curbside recycling on day one, other areas and recyclables will require new infrastructure. A list of Oregon's newly adopted recycling items is here.
Some materials will be handled by haulers. Others items, such as plastic bags and shredded paper, will have dedicated drop-off sites.
Oregon's Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act calls on large manufacturers to help pay for the improvements, in what will be the country’s first Extended Producer Responsibility law. Bell said the hope is that this Producer Responsibility component will incentivize companies to reassess their packaging.
Under the law, producers with global revenue of $5 million or more will cover approximately one-third of the cost of education, equipment for rural communities, and higher wages for workers at materials recovery facilities. The more environmentally harmful the products, the higher the fee.
The Recycling Modernization Act is expected to be fully implemented by 2028.
More information is available on the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality website, here.
