Oregon’s Bottle Bill and Refillable Bottles

Peter Spendelow

Materials Management Program

Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

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September 20, 2023

Upstream: How US Bottle Bills Accelerate Reuse

Peter Spendelow | Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Oregon Bottle Bill Started as a Litter/Recycling Bill

• Passed in 1971, and in effect in 1972
• Producers (beverage distributors and stores) responsible for taking back empty containers and properly managing them
• Each business responsible rather than a collective effort
• Beer and soft drinks only
• 5 cent refund value unchanged for 46 years in spite of inflation
• No handling fee, so no independent redemption centers – only return to retail back then

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Refillables made it possible to pass

• Refillable glass bottles were still a major part of the packaged beer and soft drink market
• Prior to the Bottle Bill, refillable glass bottles were:
• 53% of soft drink sales
• 36% of beer sales
• All grocery stores were accepting back empty glass bottles, so putting a deposit on other containers was not a huge change
• 5-cent deposit on single-use containers, but only a 2-cent deposit on standardized refillable bottles.

The 2-cent deposit was not a good incentive

• At least, not in the long term
• After passage, beer and soft drinks both moved to more than 90% refillable
• But people did not care about 2-cent vs 5-cent deposit
• Moving to a flashy new bottle style raise sales
• However, local breweries would wash and refill even their “one-way” bottles.
• Ended in Oregon when brewery was purchased by Miller Brewing in 1999 and closed down.

Oregon Bottle Bill is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

• Legislation in 2007 lead to the formation of the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) in 2009
• OBRC has become a de facto PRO (Producer Responsibility Organization)
• New innovations, including
• Industry-run Bottle Drop Redemption Centers
• Green bag and blue bag redemption systems
• Efficient redemption and processing systems
• Refillable bottles

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Current companies using OBRC bottles

• 11 companies – more than 100 beverages
• Barriers to expansion

Thank you

Contact: Peter Spendelow

peter.h.spendelow@deq.oregon.gov �

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