Oregon’s New Recycling Modernization Act: Increasing Trust and Creating Profitable Recycling Services

Mar 17, 2025 | Community, Education, News

On July 1 of this year, Oregon will become the first state in the U.S. to launch a new recycling plan that will:

• expand the number of things most of us can recycle, 
• provide residential recycling pickup service to city and rural customers in all parts of the state, 
• require owners and managers of multi-unit housing to provide recycling for residents,
• improve public education about recycling, 
• require certification of recycling operations to verify that their products are really being recycled,
• enable upgrades to the facilities that process recycled materials, and 
• require producers of plastic and paper products to form a Producer Cooperative through which they will pay part of the cost of recycling, enough to provide funding to enable recycling facilities to upgrade equipment and make up for fluctuations in market prices,
• spur changes in packaging as manufacturers discover that making packaging easy to recycle saves them money.

For collectors, materials recycling facilities, final processors and especially manufacturers of plastic packaging and tableware, that means quite a change is coming. This bill will require manufacturers to share the cost of recycling plastics and paper products as well as help support and stabilize the recycling markets. 

In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed the law that created this change (SB 582), officially named the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act. Oregon was the first state that addressed the issue. Since then, four others have signed packaging Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR) bills into law—Maine, Colorado, California and Minnesota. The law required the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to draft rules to implement it by 2024. DEQ met that deadline, and since then it has been soliciting comments from the participants to ensure that the rules would be practical and that the companies affected by the bill would be able to comply.

Now DEQ has set the date when the new law will take effect: July 1, 2025.

In compliance with the new law, manufacturers that produce $5 million or more worth of paper, packaging and food serviceware have formed their Producer Responsibility Organization in Oregon called the CAA. Manufacturers will pay into the CAA, which will distribute the funds to the Materials Recovery Facilities and end recyclers to pay for upgrades to their equipment, which they will need to ensure the material they sell back to recycling process plants is clean, uniform and free of dirt, grease or food particles that would contaminate it and prevent recycling. 

To understand how important this new system is, it helps to trace the path of the things we place in our curbside bins through their journey to becoming new products. Republic Services picks up our bins from the cans we place in front of our homes and takes the contents to a recovery facility (MRF) on Swan Island run by a company called EFI. EFI buys the mixed material that we put in our cans from Republic, separates them into newsprint, office paper, corrugated cardboard (OCC), milk and soup boxes, glass bottles, plastic bottles and batteries.  

Once the items are separated, EFI sells each material to a different recycling plant, such as a local cardboard mill, the mixer that breaks down milk cartons or the big plastic pellet manufacturers in the midwest and east coast. At each of those buy-sell points, prices vary according to several factors, among them the cleanliness of the goods, supply and demand for them and uniformity over a group of loads.

Oregon’s new law will boost recycling work around the state by ensuring that separation facilities like EFI and Pioneer, who buy the recycled material we place in our  cans, can sell their separated products on the market, regardless of price fluctuations. Under the new law and with their new equipment, separation yards such as EFI and Pioneer will be able to meet the standards of their customers, who often refuse shipments of separated materials because they are too dirty to process or don’t meet other specifications. 

Summary of the Law

The act requires producers with annual sales of $5 million or more to form a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) that will fund improvements to the system and ensure the recyclables that are collected go to responsible end markets. 

The producer responsibility organization (the CAA in Oregon) will use producer membership fees to ensure better and expanded recycling services. It will also fund waste prevention grants and studies to assess challenges and recommend solutions to improve recycling in condos and apartment complexes, equity in the recycling system, as well as clean up litter and marine debris.

The State of Oregon will establish one statewide list of what can be recycled by the franchised garbage haulers like Republic so that individuals and businesses can recycle the same items everywhere in the state.

Local governments, especially in rural areas, will expand their recycling services with direction and support from the PRO, and cities will do the same for people living in apartments and condos. The same private collection companies (i.e., garbage haulers) will continue to provide curbside pickup for recycling in cities where they already do that – including in Lake Oswego.

PRO(s) will create accessible educational resources that local governments can use to discourage contamination and encourage recycling 

Processing of recyclable materials will be done in facilities that meet new performance standards, including material quality, reporting and paying living wages to facility workers. These facilities will be required to obtain permits from DEQ or meet similar standards before they can receive recyclable material from Oregon communities.

End markets that can handle the material appropriately – without creating plastic pollution – can purchase the materials that these facilities process and recycle them into new products. Producers will be obligated to make sure materials collected in Oregon reach responsible end markets.

Oversight and Integration

A new governor-appointed advisory council will provide feedback to DEQ and the PRO(s) about important elements of this new recycling system, including the statewide collection list. DEQ will oversee the recycling system and provide enforcement where necessary. The PRO(s), processors and local governments will track and report more and better information about where our recyclables go and provide assurance that they are used to make new products.

How You Can Reduce Your Trash Bill

Mar 13, 2025 | Community, Education, News

By Susan Mead, LOSN Volunteer

The Lake Oswego garbage, recycling and yard debris with food waste rates have increased as of February 2025. The new rates are available to review at the city’s website: https://www.ci.oswego.or.us/recycle/garbage

There are several ways  you can lower your monthly  cost and take advantage of free services:

•  If you have weekly service for a 65-gallon or 90-gallon trash roll cart and do not fill it more than half full every week.

SOLUTION: Consider going to a smaller roll cart from what you currently have. A 35-gallon trash roll cart service is almost 50% cheaper than the two largest sizes.

•  If you have weekly service for the smallest roll cart (35-gallon) and usually don’t fill it.

SOLUTION: There are two great options if you already have the smallest roll cart. Consider getting a plastic insert in your 35-gallon roll cart to qualify for 20-gallon weekly trash pick-up, saving you 25% over your current bill. Alternatively, you can switch to a pick up of the 35-gallon roll cart once every 4 weeks, saving you over 40% compared to weekly pickup.   

• You want to keep weekly service at your current roll-cart size because you put food waste in your yard debris bin and it gets too dirty/stinky.

SOLUTION: Did you know that Republic Services will swap out your yard debris roll cart once a year for free? Additional cleanings are available for a fee, but that fee may be less than you pay monthly for the larger trash roll cart.

• If you travel more than three weeks at a time you can put your trash service on hold for a vacation credit while you are away.

SOLUTION: As long as you reach out to Republic Services ahead of your next service date and inform them of the weeks that you will not need services. You can put your trash/recycling service on hold and receive a vacation credit for the period you are skipping service if you are requesting it for at least three weeks in a row, up to 4 times in a calendar year. Note: Vacation credits will not be applied to Multi-family or Commercial customers.

In any of the scenarios above, the frequency of service and size of the recycling and mixed yard waste roll-carts do not change. Even if you cut your trash service to monthly, the other carts will still be picked up weekly.

• If you need to keep your current size of trash roll cart because so much plastic is not recyclable in the curbside bin. Are there any options for this waste?

SOLUTION: In fact, there are places to take those non-curbside plastics both in Lake Oswego and in nearby jurisdictions. One recently opened location you can bring non-curbside plastics is the James Recycling Depot, located on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. Hours are limited, but they do open one Saturday every month. You can drop off clear plastic bags at nearly every supermarket, as well as clear plastic to-go containers (#1 PET) at any New Seasons location.

Finally, how do you make any of the changes suggested here? You can call Republic Services at 503-636-3011 or 844-737-8254 and request any changes you would like. Please note that the phone customer service hours are 7:30 AM – 5:30 PM Pacific Time Monday through Friday.