Recycling

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.

The Senate Bill 992, which amends the trailblazing "bottle bill" in 1971, passed the Oregon state House Wednesday with broad bipartisan support, 48-4.

State lawmakers want redemption sites to close at 8 p.m. and use mobile drop-offs after complaints of nighttime drug deals, litter and homeless camps, but people who rely on refunds object.

The legislation aims to expand recycling statewide and to have producers of packaging and other materials cover more of the cost.

Oregon is on track to become the first state to launch a recycling program that holds producers accountable for their product packaging.

Lane County signed a contract with Eugene-based Bulk Handling Systems to create a state-of-the-art recycling center unlike any other in Oregon. It will sort garbage and comingled recycling and produce methane from the organic waste, generating renewable natural gas. According to the county, it will be ​“the most technologically advanced waste processing facility in the country.”

When it comes to reducing consumer impact on the climate, reuse is orders of magnitude more effective than recycling. Two businesses are showing the way by way of refillable and reusable beer and wine glass bottles.

Many of the people most dependent on income from redeeming bottles and cans struggle to get those items to the places where they can turn them in for money. A new project in Eugene will bring a mobile bottle drop to the people and places it's needed most.

The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability has launched a curbside battery recycling service to help avert battery-caused fires in trucks and recycling centers.

The fees will fund Oregon's new mattress recycling program, which could launch as soon as this summer.