Through research, public education, advocacy, litigation and action, Environment Oregon advances policies and practices that put the state and country on a better path. Here are the legislative priorities for 2025.
Environment Oregon supports:
- Updating Oregon鈥檚 bag law and eliminating more wasteful single-use plastics: In 2019, Oregon passed the 鈥淪ustainable Shopping Initiative鈥� to phase out plastic film grocery bags. However, grocery stores and restaurants are still allowed to provide plastic film bags to customers, as long as they are 鈥渞eusable.鈥� This has led to thicker plastic bags being handed out at check out, with no evidence that they are being reused. Senate Bill 551 would phase out all plastic film bags at checkout. This bill would also phase out single-use plastic toiletries at lodging establishments and add plastic utensils and condiments to our existing 鈥渦pon request鈥� laws.
- Defending the Recycling Modernization Act: The Oregon legislature passed the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act in 2021. This law will modernize Oregon鈥檚 recycling system, ensure responsible end markets for recyclables, bring producers in to start bearing some of the costs of the system and bring recycling to even more Oregonians. These big, important changes will be going into effect on July 1, 2025, and we will be working to ensure it launches successfully and on time.
- Protecting waterways from microplastic fibers: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, microfibers are the most prevalent type of microplastic found in the environment. This is because the majority of our clothing is now made from plastics and other synthetic materials like polyester, rayon, nylon, acrylic and fleece. Cleaning these textiles in a washing machine releases millions of microfibers into wastewater infrastructure that treatment plants are unable to fully filter out, so they end up in our environment. Senate Bill 526 will begin to address this problem by requiring a microfiber filter be added to new washing machines, much like lint filters in dryers, that will prevent millions of microfibers from becoming pollution.
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Author: Celeste Meiffren-Swango, Environment Oregon
Photo by Brigitte Miller: .