Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregonians are doing a better job of recycling rigid plastic containers.  The rate went up more than two-percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.  Pete Springer reports.

The figures for 2008 aren’t in yet, but DEQ officials expect yet another increase in plastic recycling rates for last year.

They credit a legislative requirement in the early 90’s requiring distributors of rigid plastic containers to recycle at least twenty-five percent of their products.

Peter Spendalow “Before then, hardly any curbside programs included plastic containers.  They included paper and cans, but they didn’t, not very many included plastics back then.”

Peter Spendalow is a solid waste policy analyst with the Oregon DEQ.

He says curbside recycling programs -- and especially the big rolling carts -- have made a significant difference in how much gets recycled.

Peter Spendalow “You know what’s happened since then, is that we’ve figured out more efficient ways to collect things and gotten more material that way.”

Oregonians recycled slightly more than thirty-percent of rigid plastic containers in 2007.

Spendalow expects that rate to increase again this year due to a nickel deposit now required for plastic water bottles.