Big changes are coming to recycling in Lane County 

Oregon’s recycling landscape is undergoing its biggest transformation in years, starting July 1. The Recycling Modernization Act passed in 2021, and once it takes effect, it will significantly shift what people can recycle and how, both in Lane County and across the state. Here’s what you need to know about the changes:

The key message

Here are the items in the new Uniform Statewide Collection List that will be recyclable in curbside bins after July 1. However, the rollout of these new recycling options won’t happen immediately for all residents, as implementation will vary by hauler and community. Keep reading for more information about the rollout.

Plastic: 
Acceptable plastic bottles, jugs, and tubs are containers from products used in the laundry, kitchen, or bath. Shampoo, laundry soap, and home-cleaning products are OK, but not plastic from the garage or yard — no yard chemical jugs or motor oil jugs, for instance.

• #1 bottles, jars, and jugs
  • Clear, transparent blue, and transparent green only 

• #2 and #5 bottles, jars, and jugs
  • All colors and no color (clear)
  • Includes caps if threaded back on
  • Excludes items less than 2 inches in two directions 

• #1, #2, and #5 tubs
  • Excludes food serviceware
  • Excludes items less than 2 inches in two directions
  • Excludes flat lids

• #2 and #5 buckets, nursery plant containers, and pails
  • While there is no upper size limit defined in the rule, these items need to fit easily into the bin. 

Metal:

• Aluminum and steel cans and scrap metal
• Less than 10 pounds or 18 inches
• No cords, wires, or sharp items
• No aluminum foil, pressed foil products, or aerosol cans

Cardboard and cartons:

• Food and beverage cartons (milk cartons, aseptic soup boxes)
• Flattened cardboard, packaging boxes
• Delivery pizza boxes (must be empty with no food residue)

Paper:

• Newspaper, magazines, mail
• Cereal and cracker boxes, egg cartons
• Office paper, paperback books, paper bags
• Nonmetallic gift wrap
• Boxes from frozen and refrigerated foods are excluded

Glass is always recycled separately. The items shown below are recyclable under the new system as of July 1:

Why are these changes happening now?

The Recycling Modernization Act was passed in 2021, but it took years to implement due to the complexity of developing a comprehensive new recycling system.

The heart of the new law shifts responsibility to the producers who create packaging. Under the act, producers of packaging materials sold in Oregon must pay into a fund that supports recycling infrastructure, transportation, and fair wages for workers. 

This “producer responsibility organization” model, or PRO, means companies that make  hard-to-recycle materials will pay higher fees. The intention is for the fees to encourage producers to use packaging designs that are easier to recycle.

“Having producers be responsible for the end of life of these materials is fair,” said Kelly Bell, coordinator for Lane County’s Master Recycler program, which educates community volunteers on sustainable consumption, climate protection, environmental justice, food waste, toxics reduction, repair, reuse, composting, and recycling. “They (the producers) know how to make them. They know what they put in them. So they know what it takes to pull them apart and remake them.”

Many communities across the state will have an expanded list of what is recyclable. Some Lane County residents will see a decrease, however.

The background

In 2017, China tightened its standards for impurities in scrap bales and forced a host of changes to Oregon’s recycling programs, because the state could no longer meet China’s low contamination thresholds. This reduced the variety of plastics that Oregonians could recycle in curbside programs. 

Before 2017, China purchased 50% of the recyclable materials in America. Domestic producers that used scrap materials had a hard time competing economically with the higher prices China was willing to pay. 

In 2018, when the types of materials most areas of the state could recycle was greatly reduced, Lane County Waste Management Division began a program that trained community members to collect some of the plastics that had been dropped from the regular recycling stream.

Lane County Waste Management delivered more than 55.5 tons of plastic collected by volunteers to Denton Plastics in Portland. The Community Plastics Collection Program has now ended in anticipation of expanded regular recycling for all Oregonians. Lane County Waste Management is now preparing those plastic collection volunteers to help community members understand the upcoming changes to recycling.

The new law should make more high-quality recycled materials available to domestic producers while funding technology improvements at processing facilities, including cameras, infrared technology, and robotics — all of which equate to better sorting and less contaminated materials.

Lane County has consistently ranked among Oregon’s top recycling performers, with a rate of around 53% — though still short of the county’s 63% goal. The expanded recycling options should help boost the recycling rates. Updates to the program should also help to reduce public skepticism about whether materials actually get recycled, because the new law requires processors to report recycling data to the state, providing transparency that had been lacking.

What’s changing

Starting July 1, the state will have a Unified Statewide Collection List that looks similar to what the Portland area has maintained. 

The rollout won’t happen overnight, however. 

“It’s a dial, not a switch,” Bell said. 

While the law takes effect July 1, individual trash haulers will implement changes on different schedules, as they receive funding to purchase new equipment. 

Also starting July 1, producers will begin to pay into the producer responsibility funds in order to fund various items — including transportation subsidies for communities to get their recycling to the processing facility and fair wages if they don’t already have them; safe sorting equipment for processors; and also equipment for communities that don’t already have it to be able to collect the additional materials.

The changes you’ll see depend in large part on the equipment your hauler already has. If your hauler has already been accepting plastics, that means it has a system to lift up roll carts with a lift arm truck, Bell explained.

“If you already have a roll cart for recycling, your recycling will expand on July 1,” she said. 

If you are in a smaller community that is using the curbside box for your recycling, and your hauler doesn’t currently have the roll-cart system for recycling, you will have to take some plastic recyclables to your transfer station in order to be able to recycle them, while you wait for your hauler to receive the funding to purchase the lift-arm trucks.

“You’ll be able to take the plastic tubs and food and beverage cartons to your closest transfer station, but your hauler is waiting for a check from the producer responsibility organizations, which won’t start being distributed until after July 1, in order to purchase the roll carts and a truck that has the ability to pick up a roll cart,” Bell said. 

Addressing inequality 

One of the Recycling Modernization Act’s biggest benefits addresses a longstanding inequality. Rural communities often had limited recycling operations, because transportation costs made it uneconomical. The new law provides transportation subsidies for communities more than 50 miles from processing facilities, to ensure that rural Oregonians can recycle the same materials that urban residents can. 

“The law levels the playing field for all communities,” Bell said. 

Another important aspect of the program is that producers won’t be allowed to use recycling arrows on packaging that isn’t actually recyclable in Oregon.

“Think about the boxes of sippy pouches,” Bell said. “The box is recyclable. There’s a recycle symbol on the box. But the pouch is not recyclable, so there should not be a recycle symbol on the pouch.”

What you should do

The most important step is staying connected with your hauler. Each company will be on its own timeline for implementing collection of the expanded list, depending on when they receive producer responsibility funding to purchase the necessary equipment. 

Watch for communication from your hauler about when it will begin accepting the expanded list of materials. 

As of July 1, the WasteWise Lane County App will be updated to the new information.