Oregon’s Bottle Bill, which offers cash refunds for empty bottles and cans, was a landmark piece of legislation when it first passed in 1971.
Since then, it’s served as a model for similar bills in nine other states and led to some of the highest recycling rates in the nation.
According to the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which runs the beverage container return program, Oregon had a 90.5% redemption rate in 2023.
“The national average is around 35%, so it’s a staggering difference in terms of how many containers are being recycled, preventing litter along our roadsides, our beaches, our special places across the state,” said Eric Chambers, vice president of strategy and outreach for OBRC.
The bill was originally intended to discourage littering as single-use containers became the norm for beverage distributors.
But the cash refunds the program offers have increasingly become a lifeline for low-income Oregonians and people experiencing homelessness.
As reported in Willamette Week, critics now say the bill is fueling open-air drug markets outside return sites.
“People [are] going in and redeeming bottles for cash, coming out, having a dealer stand there and then sell the fentanyl to the user,” said Ken Thrasher, board chair of the Northwest Community Conservancy, a nonprofit formed by business and residential owners in the Pearl District.
“Having a cash incentive through the bottle redemption program has created, I think, an increase in drug traffic,” he said.
Thrasher and his organization are pushing for the state Legislature to reassess the Bottle Bill. Namely, they want all container returns to go through standalone redemption centers, rather than retail stores, and to replace cash refunds with food assistance or store credit.
“This was not set up as a social service program, initially. It has evolved somewhat into that, but it’s also being misused,” Thrasher said.
Chambers said bringing the Bottle Bill into the conversation around the state’s fentanyl crisis is “focusing more on a symptom than an underlying cause.”
With the potency of fentanyl and its plummeting cost — sometimes as low as $1 a pill — he said the emphasis needs to be on enforcement and treatment options.
“I think focusing on trying to disrupt that distribution network while also having meaningful support and recovery services available for individuals who have fallen ill to this substance are much more meaningful interventions than whether or not beverage containers have value,” Chambers said.
Others argue that the majority of people redeeming bottles and cans aren’t using drugs at all.
Kris Brown is the operational manager of The People’s Depot, a Portland redemption center run by current and former can collectors. He said many of the people that come to the depot to redeem containers are elderly, disabled or otherwise unable to earn a living wage.
“They’re worried about paying their phone bill. They’re worried about making sure that they have food at the end of the month. They want to make sure that they have money in their pocket after they’ve spent 80% of their income on rent,” Brown said.
For people experiencing homelessness, collecting cans is also a way to earn income without resorting to stealing or drug dealing, Brown said.
“Canners are incredibly hardworking people,” he said. “They are part of our society, and they are part of our economy.”
Though Gov. Tina Kotek recently allowed two retail stores in Southwest Portland to temporarily stop accepting cans and bottles, lawmakers haven’t indicated that they’re interested in taking up the Bottle Bill in the next legislative session.
Chambers said he doesn’t expect any major changes to the law in the near future.
“I think before we sweep in broad changes that are 53 years in the making, we need to be really careful and thoughtful about that,” he said. “But we’re certainly open to questions around how the redemption system works and how it can modernize to best serve Oregonians.”
Eric Chambers, Ken Thrasher and Kris Brown spoke with “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller, along with RJ DeMello, chair of the St. Johns Neighborhood Association. Click play to listen to the full conversation:
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