The state is adopting new recycling rules to reduce packaging pollution and make manufacturers pay for the waste

By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle

Rules of the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act adopted by the Environmental Quality Commission

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Starting next summer, Oregon residents across the state will receive a standardized list of what can and cannot be recycled statewide, and owners and managers of apartment complexes and multifamily properties must prepare to provide recycling to residents.

These are some of the new rules surrounding recycling finalized Friday by Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission after four years of negotiations and planning. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act takes effect July 1, 2025, making it easier for Oregonians to recycle. New packaging fees will be introduced for companies selling products in Oregon based on the weight and recyclability of the material.

Hard-to-recycle materials like plastics charge companies higher fees than products that are easy to recycle, ideally incentivizing manufacturers to choose lighter, more sustainable materials. This follows regulations passed in Oregon in recent years that require manufacturers to cover some of the end-of-life costs of paint, mattresses and electronics or invest in programs to recycle such products.

“Part of the goal is to transition companies to more recyclable materials. There are costs to packaging that need to be internalized,” said Senator Michael Dembrow, who sponsored the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act in the 2021 legislative session.

The rules also give the Circular Action Alliance (CCA), a nonprofit based in Washington DC, the authority to impose and invest in some new packaging fees. Local governments and the alliance will be responsible for reinvesting fees into projects to improve recycling infrastructure in Oregon.

The alliance was founded in 2022 by 20 multinational corporations in the food, beverage, retail and consumer goods industries, including Amazon, Coca-Cola and Nestle. It oversees similar recycling programs being implemented under new guidelines in California, Colorado, Maine and Maryland.

Under Oregon’s new rules, environmental regulators will publish a standardized list of items that can be recycled across the state starting this summer. Owners and managers of apartment buildings such as duplexes and apartment buildings must also ultimately offer recycling services to residents.

Two other bills passed in Oregon in 2023 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 take effect in January. Rules under Senate Bill 123, the smart labeling bill, must be finalized by 2027.

According to a 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, no country on earth produces more plastic waste than the United States.

The average person in the United States produced about 60 pounds of plastic waste per year in 1980. According to the EPA, each person in the United States now produces more than 200 pounds of plastic waste each year. Up to 2 million tons of this waste enters the environment every year, and much of it ends up in waterways and oceans and eventually becomes microplastics.

The nonprofit Environment Oregon tested 30 rivers and lakes across 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 is recycled, according to the EPA.