Statewide plastic recycling rate falls.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

The statewide recycling rate for plastic containers has fallen below a statutory minimum for the first time, triggering new requirements for plastics companies aimed at boosting recycled material.

State residents recycled rigid plastic containers - tubs, bottles, cups and plastic clamshells used for some deli foods - at a rate of 24.3 percent in 2005, the latest year for which the rate has been calculated.

Based on that and other trends, the state Department of Environmental Quality projects that the rate will fall below 25 percent again this year.

State law mandates a 25 percent recycling rate for rigid plastics.

Falling below that level will trigger rules requiring companies that package products in plastic containers to take additional steps to boost plastic recycling.

To comply with the law, companies will have to switch to containers made with recycled plastic, use a type of plastic that is recycled at a 25 percent rate or higher, or switch to reusable containers designed to be refilled at least five times.

The law gives companies a year to meet the new standards, so changes won't be required until 2008.

Peter Spendelow of the DEQ's solid waste program said this is the first time the agency announced a plastics recycling rate below the 25 percent level since the state began tracking it in 1993.

The rate was 24 percent in 2004, but that is a new figure based on revised data that didn't become available until last year.

The rate hit almost 30 percent in 2001 but has since fallen.

Spendelow said the decline is due in large part to the rising popularity of bottled water and juices, which are typically sold in plastic bottles but can't be returned for a nickel deposit under Oregon's bottle bill.

At the same time, sales of soft drinks, which have a much higher recycling rate in part because of the deposit value, have flattened or declined slightly.

The bottle bill applies only to carbonated beverages.

Another factor is the increasing use of plastic containers for tubs, trays and other types of containers.

Eugene-Springfield is one of only two metro areas in the state - the other is Marion County - that has curbside recycling for most plastics, Spendelow said.

So while the plastics recycling rate is high in Eugene-Springfield and Marion County, it is low on a statewide basis.

New figures on the amount of contamination in plastics recycling also forced the state to revise down its estimates on recycling volume.

Recent studies indicate that the weight of lids, liquids, food residue and other nonrecyclable materials that end up in recycle bundles is twice as high overall as previously thought.

That weight must be deducted from the total in calculating the recycling rate, Spendelow said.

The new requirements will be dropped if the state's plastics recycling moves back above 25 percent, which could happen before the new rules take effect next year.

Steps that could accomplish that increase include the Legislature amending the bottle bill to cover water and juice bottles, expanding curbside plastics recycling to more parts of the state and improving the efficiency of recycling sorters to reduce contamination.