Oregon鈥檚 first-in-the-nation bottle recycling program will now double the payout for empty cans and glass bottles鈥攊ncluding soda, beer, malt beverages and water and will cover more types next year.
Residents have been stockpiling ahead of the rule change, which begins Saturday, and includes a grace period to allow newly labeled bottles and cans to make their way on to store shelves.
Oregon鈥檚 1971 Bottle Bill 鈥� groundbreaking at the time for combating litter 鈥� has been replicated in nine other states and Guam, according to the Associated Press. Michigan is the only other state with an across-the-board 10-cent reward, although booze and other large bottles go for 10 cents in California and 15 cents in Maine and Vermont.
Rates of household recycling in Oregon tumbled from 90 percent averages in the early days to under 65 percent of can and bottle sales statewide in 2015, according to government data. Demand fell off as inflation ate up the worth of the nickel and convenient curb-side recycling programs meant that citizens were less willing to separate bottles and cans and return them for a few cents.
That decline triggered the new 10-cent rate in a provision added to the Bottle Bill of 2011 that takes effect Saturday. Critics point to the timing of the cooperative program that involves local and national distributors, as lawmakers work to close Oregon鈥檚 looming $1.6 billion budget deficit.
Oregon and Iowa鈥檚 Bottle Bills are unique in that private industry, not government, operates the system and can claim all unredeemed refunds, the AP reported. Foes of the latest update to the Oregon bill think that the state, not industry, should have a shot at those funds in much the same way that California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Michigan do.
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