News and Legislation
Plastic bottle recycling plant planned in St. Helens
October 21, 2009 - (The Oregonian)
Two plastic-industry veterans and the state's bottle-handling cooperative Wednesday announced plans to build the Northwest's first facility for recycling plastic water and pop bottles.
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Money Back For Water Bottles
March 16, 2009 - (The Environment Report) Most states don’t have bottle deposit laws to encourage people to return their empties. Only eleven states do. Now, some are expanding their recycling programs to include bottled water. Sadie Babits reports the states know requiring a deposit for the bottles will keep them from ending up in landfills:
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Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) Teams with Local Recycle Machine Manufacturer
January 26, 2009 - Press Release
Oregon’s new industry-run Bottle Bill cooperative, OBRC, signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Can and Bottle Systems (CBSI), a local producer of reverse vending machines. For over 20 years OBRC, previously Container Recovery, Inc. (CRinc), has helped retailer’s and distributor’s meet the demands presented by the Oregon Bottle Bill.
The addition of water and flavored water to the Bottle Bill is expected to result in an increase of over 200% to the number of recycled plastic bottles. Water and flavored water drinks make up 20-25% of total deposit container sales.
CBSI is one of the few U.S. based producers of reverse vending machines (RVM) and has been headquartered in Portland, Oregon since 1992. In addition to the Oregon office, CBSI also maintains offices in Michigan and Iowa. They produce three major lines of equipment including the industry leading bulk-feed Aluminum can machine. CBSI is continually developing new technologies and systems for making recycling easier for consumers and retailers.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to work with CBSI and we’re proud to support a local manufacturer,” said John Andersen, President of OBRC. “Our company’s anticipate working together to develop technologies that bring an Oregon-based solution to Oregon grocery retailers.”
OBRC operates a statewide pick-up, processing and deposit reconciliation program for nearly all containers covered under the Oregon Bottle Bill. Over 3,000 retailers throughout Oregon utilize OBRC’s services many of them using reverse vending machines (RVM).
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New Bottle Rule Enforced
January 9, 2009 - Bend, OR (The Bulletin) The Oregon Liquor Control Commission will be sending inspectors to stores around the state next week to ensure retailers are complying with a new law that requires bottles of water to be marked to indicate they can be returned for a 5-cent deposit. Bottled water containers were added to the Oregon bottle bill Jan. 1, but according to the OLCC, some retailers are not yet in compliance with the new law.
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Grocer: regulators overreacting to bottle bill glitches
January 8, 2009 - Portland, OR (Oregonian) Oregon law now requires plastic water bottles to be marked for a nickel deposit, but the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is overreacting to stores still having some unmarked water bottles on their shelves, a Safeway spokesman said this morning.
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Co-op prepares to hit the bottles as new law nears
September 26, 2008 (Portland Business Journal) - Container Recovery Inc. is preparing to get bigger as recycling gets more complicated.
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Oregon Retailers Get Ready for Bottle Bill Changes
December 26, 2008 - EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Starting Jan. 1, Oregonians will have to cough up an extra nickel when they buy a bottle of water.
Adding deposits for water containers is one of the major changes to the 38-year-old Oregon bottle bill that now covers beer and soda containers.
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Governor Signs Updated Bottle Bill
June 7, 2007: Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed two bills into law, reinforcing his record of focusing on environmental issues in the state. One of the bills, the updated Oregon Bottle Bill, expands the current 5-cent bottle deposit to include the now ubiquitous water bottles as a means to increase the recycling rate of such products.
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Regional Beverage Distributors Announce Intent to Merge
June 2, 2008 (Portland, Oregon) – Columbia Distributing Company, Mt. Hood Beverage Company and Gold River Distributing announced today that they plan to merge their beer and non-alcoholic beverage distribution businesses in Oregon and Washington, following approval from their respective suppliers. The merger will not include their wine distribution businesses, as they will remain separately owned. John Klein will remain as president of Young's Columbia wine company.
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Additional Changes to Bottle Bill Proposed
May 29, 2008 (Oregonian) - The chairman of Oregon's bottle-bill task force is proposing big changes to one of the state's most revered pieces of environmental legislation, including setting up industry-run "redemption centers" to reduce bottle and can returns to grocery stores, requiring more containers to carry a nickel deposit and adding a quarter deposit on all wine and liquor bottles.
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