Oregonians have partnered with the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) to raise more than $125,508 in donated bottles and cans over the last three weeks to support Ukrainians in crisis through Oregon’s Bottle Bill.

A total of $75,508 came from residents donating OR 10-cent bottles and cans, and the rest was matched by the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC). The funds will go to Mercy Corps’ relief efforts on the ground in Ukraine. 

DEQ developed in-depth explanatory materials to help people understand the Recycling Modernization Act and how different businesses, organizations and communities may be affected when the law is implemented. The law becomes effective January 1, 2022 and program changes begin July 2025. 

Oregon DEQ is an AOR member and sponsor of Sustainable Oregon 2021, AOR's virtual annual conference.

Oregon DEQ has released a new analytical tool to help Oregon's sustainability workers and activists quantify the effects of waste management activities like recycling.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 33 Safer Choice Partner of the Year award winners for achievement in the design, manufacture, selection, and use of products with safer chemicals, as part of Pollution Prevention Week. This is the 7th annual Safer Choice Partner of the Year awards. Included in this year’s awards are four winners in Oregon.  

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A new law in Oregon will update the state’s recycling systems to make recycling easier and more reliable, expand access to services and upgrade the facilities that sort recyclables. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (Senate Bill 582), signed Aug. 6 by Gov. Kate Brown, will also ensure collected materials are recycled responsibly, and reduce social and environmental harms, such as plastic pollution. 

Georgia-Pacific (GP), Atlanta, has begun operations at its GP Toledo material recovery facility (MRF) in Toledo, Oregon. The MRF has applied GP’s Juno technology, which is designed to recycle highly contaminated recovered fiber and mixed materials.

Christer Henriksson, president of Juno Technology at Georgia-Pacific, says GP has been piloting Juno since 2013 at a plant in Savannah, Georgia, and began construction on its Toledo MRF about two years ago.

The company operating Oregon’s only hazardous waste landfill says it needs room to grow as it anticipates an influx of waste in the years to come.

Military cleanups, federal Superfund sites, firefighter training facilities — all are among reasons cited by Chemical Waste Management, or CWM, to expand its hazardous waste operation outside the Columbia River town of Arlington.

A public hearing to consider additional amendments to the Plastic Pollution & Recycling Modernization Act (currently SB 582-1) has been scheduled for Thursday, April 8 at 1 pm.