Oregon’s 10 Cent Law

Newport, Oregon

July 11, 2021

Oregon requires you pay a $0.10 per bottle and can as an incentive to recycle the product (and get back your $0.10 per unit). Recycling is made fairly easy — there are machines at places like Walmart where you deposit your recyclables and get your money back.

I’ll fess up that I have not done this yet.

I I have noticed something about Oregon - you don’t see liter consisting of bottles and cans; at least I haven’t. The $0.10 is enough that it motivates some people to collect the improperly disposed of bottles and cans and get money for them. The folks I have seen doing this collecting appear to be homeless which is sad. The positive spin is that they are helping in the recycling effort and getting some money. I assume they may not spend that money wisely but that’s a different issue.

I applaud Oregon for this program. The state has put a cost on the disposal of plastic, glass and aluminum. What a novel idea! I wonder if that would work with carbon emissions (or more generally emissions that contribute to air pollution)? 🤪