Board Fails To Budge On Recycling Mandates

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www.deq.state.or.us/lq/sw/recovery/rpc.htm

Board won't budge on recycling mandates
Manufacturers take issue with new rules for plastic
BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal
February 25, 2007
The state's environmental commission rejected a request Friday by manufacturers to change recycling rules for plastic containers.
The rules are triggered when statewide plastic recycling rates drop below 25 percent. Last year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality estimated that 24.3 percent of plastic containers were recycled.
The rules would require manufacturers to increase recycled content in their containers; use bottles made of materials that are recycled at a rate of more than 25 percent; or use bottles that can be refilled at least five times.
"We have been flirting with the 25 percent thing since the year the rule was adopted (in 1991)," said Environmental Quality Commissioner Bill Blosser. "If I was a manufacturer, I would have been worried right away, not just in the last three months."
Pat McCormick, a representative for the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Products Association, said manufacturers will likely turn to the legislature to ensure the rules are not enforced.
McCormick said that the main problem is in separating the plastics from the rest of recyclables. Right now, one in every five plastic containers do not get recycled even though it was placed in a recycling bin. The problem occurs at the sorting facilities that deal with huge quantities of recycled plastics, paper and metal.
"For us, (figuring out how to capture all of the plastics) is the highest priority," he said. "We can't have it ending up in landfills. That is unacceptable."
In the Legislature, state Rep. Vicki Berger of Salem is sponsoring a bill to expand Oregon's bottle bill to cover water, a move expected to be opposed by grocers who don't want to spend more time and space handling bottle returns.
Rob Guttridge of the nonprofit Recycling Advocates said the manufacturers should do more to prevent so much plastic from being trashed -- not only because they use so much of it to package products, but also because the 25 percent figure is not ambitious enough.
"The standard of 25 percent is horribly low," he said. "It's the bottom floor -- not a worthy or hard-to-reach goal."
Loretta Pickerell of DEQ said it has been obvious that plastics recycling would not meet the goal.
bcasper@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6994