A row of sparkling clean reverse vending machines greet customers at the grand opening of the Medford BottleDrop center.
Jes Burns/EarthFix
Major changes are underway, with more on the horizon for Oregon’s pioneering bottle deposit system.
Those changes -- the biggest since the Bottle Bill's adoption a generation ago -- have been slowly playing out as grocery stores close their return stations in favor of centralized off-site redemption centers.
And the state will soon determine if the deposit paid for each bottle and can of soda, water or beer will remain at a nickel or double to a dime.
Those changes are all about increasing the rate of empties -- and deposits -- that get returned.
For about 20 years after Oregon's Bottle Bill passed, the statewide redemption rate stayed above 90 percent, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. This caused a substantial reduction of beverage containers in landfills, on roadsides and in waterways.
The Oregon Bottle Bill was first-of-its-kind legislation in the United States when it was passed in 1971. It's been lauded for helping to reduce litter and create an ethos of conservation and recycling.
But then there was a shift. By the mid 2000s the return rate had dropped considerably.
“And the frustration level of consumers was going up,” said Suzanne Johannsen, the former head of a recycling non-profit in Bend.
In 2007, Johannsen was tapped to serve on a statewide task force charged with trying to turn the trend around. They were faced with a couple distinct problems.
Credit: Jes Burns
The first is inflation. A nickel isn’t what it used to be. Back in the 1970s, two nickels could buy you a postage stamp, and a just few more could get you a loaf of bread. When Oregon’s Bottle Bill went into effect, the nickel deposit on a soda was a real incentive to return those empties that too often ended up littered on river banks or roadsides.
Then there’re the grocery store return centers. Most Oregonians are familiar with smell of can funk - the co-mingling of stale beer and rancid soda - that permeates the often dingy and sticky return areas.
“Usually the machines were clogged or full and you had to call for somebody to come help, which would usually take several minutes,” said Cynda Webb. “It was not a pleasant experience.”
Webb, who lives in Medford, was looking for an alternative. The answer she found was the number one recommendation of Suzanne Johannsen’s task force: a redemption center.
BottleDrop
On opening day at the Medford BottleDrop, Webb was shown around a clean, spacious storefront by Alisa Schifflett.
“These machines aren’t like the grocery store machines, they take all three types of material – glass plastic and aluminum,” Schifflett explained to Webb.
The two women fed bottles and cans into one of the dozen or so reverse vending machines lining the wall of the BottleDrop center.
Cynda Webb at Medford BottleDrop. Credit: Jes Burns
When a BottleDrop center opens, participating grocery stores and other retailers can stop accepting returns – and leave all the mess and money handling to the redemption centers.
Greg Edwards shoves cans from handcart into the hole in the wall.
“You’re allowed to return more bottles. It just makes it easier for us to get rid of all of them at the same time,” he says.
Critics of the Model
Bottle centers are good for retailers. And the largest-ever opening-day crowd that filed into the Medford BottleDrop seemed excited by the changes.
But the industrial settings of many of these centers are making it difficult to access without a car. The Medford BottleDrop is not in a walkable area; it's not served by public transportation and would require biking along a busy highway to get there.
These factors could be major obstacle for low-income Oregonians, including the homeless, who often rely on bottle returns for income. They’re often at the front lines of gathering bottles and cans that would otherwise be en route to the landfill or litter the roadsides.
Chris Clouart is Managing Director of the Bethlehem Inn, a shelter in Bend. His sense is that the BottleDrop in town isn’t terribly popular.
“I have talked to some folks who go on about the hassle of getting to the one redemption center we have in town,” he said in an email.
For casual bottle returners, those who return what they buy on a regular basis, not being able to cash in while grocery shopping is not exactly convenient.
Credit: Jes Burns/EarthFix
Saturation Patrol
Still, the grocery and beverage industries' Bottle Bill-focused co-operative, the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, is moving to open about 35 more BottleDrops over the next nine years. A BottleDrop in North Portland is slated to open on December 18. Then next year, Springfield, Klamath Falls and a second location in Eugene are in the queue.
But will these centers turn Oregon’s plummeting return rate around? It’s too soon to tell, said the OBRC's Cherilyn Bertges.
“Each center goes through phases. It goes through an initial phase where it’s open and it’s kind of like this new exciting thing. Then it drops off, and then more people find out about it and it comes back up,” she said.
Bertges says more time is needed before OBRC can determine if a specific location is a success. Some of the earliest BottleDrops are doing well, pulling in more returns than the surrounding grocery stores did before they opened.
In addition, the statewide return rate has leveled off. It’s been hovering in the low 70s since the redemption centers started opening a few years back. More data is needed before this can be called a trend.
Would you return for a dime?
For Oregonians, it’s the return rate for this year and next that will have the greatest effect. A stipulation in the 2011 Bottle Bill revision said if statewide redemptions are below 80 percent for two years running, then deposits will increase to a dime.
This year, 2014, is the first that figures into that calculation. Those numbers won’t be available until spring. But the probability is low that the bottle redemption rate will rise from 71 percent in 2013 to above 80 percent in 2014 and 2015.
“Even with the popularity of our redemption centers… it may be something that’s necessary for the redemption rate to go up,” says Burtges. “We think it’s likely.”
The experiences of other states suggest raising the bottle deposit to a dime will increase the redemption rate well above 80 percent. Not everyone is convinced though, Suzanne Johannsen included.
Inside a reverse vending machine. Credit: Jes Burns
“I don’t think a nickel makes a lot of difference makes a lot of difference to people anymore. I don’t know that a dime will either,” she said.
Johannsen says even if the bottle deposit goes up in 2017, people are busy. She argues the most important thing is keeping recycling top-of-mind.
“Just plain old educating people, reminding people is going to be more effective at getting the rate up,” she said.
Education is a focus of OBRC. The recycling cooperative runs programs in schools to teach children about how the Bottle Bill deposit system works.
Ultimately though, it will most likely take a combination of adjustments to turn around the downward trend of returning empties in Oregon: education, improving the redemption experience of consumers and retailers, and bumping up the amount of deposit. Couple these with the addition of juice, coffee, tea and sports drink containers to the Bottle Bill in 2018, and the number of beverage containers going into the landfill in Oregon will undoubtedly take a tumble.