Hold onto your yogurt containers: Good news for recyclers is just weeks away.
Oregon’s Recycling Modernization Act, passed in 2021, takes effect next month. Starting July 1, residential recycling will look much like it did before 2018, when East Asian facilities stopped accepting U.S. materials.
Lane County’s Master Recycler program coordinator Kelly Bell said people with curbside pickup will be able to recycle yogurt and margarine tubs, milk cartons, soup boxes, and one or two items that weren’t previously in the mix.
“I have some good news about a very small piece of plastic,” Bell told KLCC. “What we are now being allowed to do is, if your container has a twist cap, you can empty your container and you can replace that twist cap, and the container and the cap will make it to a plastics recycler.”
Bell said buckets are another addition, including those for cat litter or food. She said large haulers will send information in post cards or bill stuffers, and the county will share updates through social media, mailers and news outlets.
Smaller communities that don’t have curbside recycling will be the first to receive funding through the law, according to Bell. That money will allow them to buy equipment, such as trucks and rolling carts, starting in July, but it may take some time before residents of those areas can recycle from home. In the meantime, she said, transfer stations will accept all of the new items beginning on the first of July.
More information about the new recycling law is here. A list of materials that will be accepted state-wide is here.
