Oregon Bottle Bill - A Brief History

The Oregon Bottle Bill of 1971 was the first container deposit legislation passed in the United States. It requires carbonated soft drink and beer containers sold in Oregon to be returnable with a minimum refund value. The law is credited with reducing litter and increasing container recycling. As a result, items which used to make up around 40% of roadside litter now represent about 6%. But with return rates averaging 90%[1], its real benefit is in waste reduction and resource conservation, particularly for aluminum. By comparison, states without similar bills recycle on average 28% of their containers. Beverage distributors retain all deposits not reclaimed by consumers.

Richard Chambers (1921-1974) pioneered the Bottle Bill. Chambers, born in Salem, resolved to climb, hike and kayak every mountain, trail and river of Oregon. During his adventures he collected litter along the way, sifting through it, searching for solutions to eliminate it. In the summer of 1968 he called Oregon State Representative Paul Hanneman whom Chambers knew well, after he was inspired by a small newspaper article about a lawmaker in British Columbia who wanted to ban non-refundable bottles and cans. Chambers told Hanneman he wanted a deposit put on bottles and cans to encourage people to return them to the store.

The bottle issue was much larger than it appeared. Prior to the 1940s returnable bottles were the norm because it was cheaper for bottling companies to collect and wash old bottle than buy new ones. But after World War II, the steel and aluminum industries started to promote metal beverage cans. As the cans were cheap to produce, they became throwaways, and soon glass companies pushed to ban the returnable glass bottle as well. Disposable containers gave national bottlers and breweries an edge over smaller operations; before, national operations had trouble competing with local operations because of the cost ensued by shipping larger quantities of returned empty bottles, but with disposable containers national operations were able to avoid the return shipment costs; this move drove many local breweries out of business, as the number of small Oregon breweries dropped from about 400 to about 160. Soft drink companies also consolidated their plants costing more than 27,000 jobs.

By 1968 alone, beer and soda companies were responsible for 173 million bottles and 263 million cans in Oregon.

Because of an attempt by Vermont legislators to approve a bottle bill in 1953, a political group was formed between the breweries, soft drink makers, and glass and metal industries. The Vermont bill failed to pass, due in large part to this alliance. Businesses mostly involved in the beverage contaner industry formed a non-profit group, Keep America Beautiful, to promote anti-litter public service ads. These ads were successful in diverting attention away from the beverage container companies.

Chambers began a letter-writing campaign, using non-ordinary stationary and stamps to draw the attention of his intended audience. Oregon House Bill 1157 was introduced and was given to the House State and Federal Affairs Committee. Chambers brought in people to testify for the bill, including a river guide to testify about the amount of beverage package litter in the water, and a farmer who lost four cows due to ingestion of glass and metal shards from beverage containers. Beverage container materials companies and bottling companies fought against the bill. Hanneman offered the compromise of not banning non-returnables but instead requiring a five-cent deposit as an incentive for return. By a 5 to 4 vote, the bill was sent to the House floor, where it fell 3 votes short of passage, with 27 of 60 members voting for it. Governor Tom McCall had already offered his support for the bill, so Hanneman asked McCall to help sway the House's vote in favor of passage. McCall refused, advising that he did not want a Bottle Bill in that legislative session. McCall planned to endorse the anti-littering campaign espoused by the Keep America Beautiful non-profit in 1970 and wait until 1971 to support the Bottle Bill. It has been written that this delay was intentional on McCall's part to make the bill his, and is partly a reaction to negative feelings for Hanneman's lack of support for the Beach Bill that McCall had championed earlier. After its defeat, Chambers continued his letter writing campaign.

After McCall's refusal to back the Bottle Bill in 1969 he sponsored formation of a non-profit SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism). In 1971, it was reported that 3/4 of SOLV's budget was derived from organizations opposing the bottle bill. SOLV also received state funds.

In 1970, McCall initiated his own campaign for the Bottle Bill. Among opponents of the bill were grocery stores who feared financial strains with the processing of returns. John Piacentini, the owner of Plaid Pantry, challenged people to return soda and beer bottles to his stores for a half-cent. Piacentini said he hoped to be buried in litter; within two weeks, 150,000 cans were returned and McCall ordered National Guard troops to take the bottles and cans away. This helped allay grocery stores' fears.

The new bill, House Bill 1036, called for banning non-returnables and putting a five-cent deposit on soda and beer bottles. More than 20 corporations sent lobbyists (some from eastern United States) to fight the bill, and rumors of bribing state legislators circulated. Oregon legislators were put off by what they considered condescending Eastern tactics -- one senator detailed her offer of a bribe while speaking on the Senate floor, which helped strengthen support for the Bottle Bill.

In 1974, when Chambers' friends found out that he was dying from cancer, they encouraged McCall to award Chambers the Clean Up Pollution Award. When urged to fight for the Bottle Bill in other states, Chambers was quoted as saying, "I accomplished what I set out to do. I don't give a shit what the rest of the world has done with its litter because now Oregon has this bill."

DEQ Bottle Bill Fact Sheet

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