Oregon Public Broadcasting

For the first time in the nearly 40-year history of Oregon's bottle bill, some stores will no longer accept returns of beer cans and pop bottles. Regulators have approved the state's first centralized redemption center, set to open this summer. Dropping cans one by one into a counting machine will be a thing of the past, at least for people who shop at three supermarkets in the east Multnomah County suburb of Wood Village. Instead, customers will have to take their bottles and cans to a redemption center located a mile or more away from the store. Alisa Shiflett is with the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which is backed by the bottling industry. She says the upside of the center is that people will be able to drop off as many as 200 cans without waiting in line

"You can simply just fill the bag at home, drop the bag at the redemption center." Shilflett said. "We'll count and process the containers for you, and credit the value to your account within 24 hours."Earlier this month Governor Ted Kulongoski vetoed a bill that he said would have led to even more centralized return sites. He said locating the centers away from grocery stores makes returning bottles and cans less convenient.