New version of Oregon bottle bill ready to go into effect

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.

Legislation approved in 2007 law also allows customers to bring the empties back to any retailer that sells a particular product.

For example, if a store sells beer, it must redeem all types of empty beer cans and bottles. Previously the stores had to accept only the brands they sold.

"You can take it back everywhere, and that is a great advancement," said Jerry Powell, a longtime advocate of the Oregon Bottle Bill and editor of the Portland-based trade magazine Resource Recycling.

Grocers, distributors and producers are scrambling to prepare for the changes.

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...stores would probably end up collecting more deposits on water bottles than customers redeem, given that it will take some time for people to catch on.

Although these changes mark some of the first since the bill was adopted in 1971, they may not be the last.

A task force has recommended a number of additional changes to the 2009 Legislature. They include increasing the refundable deposit to a dime and further expanding the sorts of beverages covered.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/new_version_of_bottle_bill_rea.html

like I have in the shop on my cutting torch. That baby already cost me 72 bucks a year whether I buy any oxygen or not so I was about to shit if it was going to be going up some more. wiping sweat form forehead now.

Back when one could buy a six pack of soda for fifty cents, that thirty cent deposit was a major factor in the actual cost of taking that sixer out of the store, and really did encourage recycling. Today, you're lucky to find a six pack of name brand soda for two bucks, the thirty cents is not terribly significant.

Either do it right, or get rid of it. And the latter is a reasonable solution, back in the late 1960's and early 70's, when the deposit laws were enacted, there were not common, everyday, reasonable recycling methods. Today, every city pretty much has recycling. New York supermarkets don't carry more than about twenty or thirty varieties of beers, they don't want to have to set up the machines that refund deposits for the niche beers. Over in New Jersey, there is a much greater variety, although the grocery stores don't sell beer. But the inevitable liquor store next to any upscale supermarket always carries a decent variety.