Although this is very old news in other parts of the world, Oregon is about to embark on what counts as a revolutionary project in the United States. Beginning June 21st, the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative will introduce refillable bottles statewide. That's when the first of the new bottles roll off the filler at Widmer Brothers. Within the following weeks, six more breweries will begin selling beer in refillable bottles.



Background

Refillable bottles are the norm in many countries; beer drinkers visiting Belgium and Germany may remember seeing refillables for sale by the crate. In fact, refillable bottles were once the norm in the United States as well. After WWII, when the United States went into industrialization hyperdrive, everything became disposable--including bottles and cans. Midcentury Americans couldn't be bothered to return bottles; they had places to go and litter to distribute. It got so bad that by the early 1970s there were massive campaigns to end littering--along with the first of the bills that put a deposit on cans and bottles to ensure their safe return. Oregon led the charge on this initiative back in 1971, and the problem of littering--at least so far as cans and bottles went--was solved.

This project emerged when the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC), which oversees implementation of the Bottle Bill in Oregon, started considering a project to go back to the old refillable bottle days. While returnable bottles are a step up from the old litter days, there's still a substantial environmental cost to single-use containers. If the state could move toward refillable bottles, it would make a noticeable dent in Oregon's carbon footprint.



Development

The project started at OBRC under John Andersen, but was taken over by Jules Bailey, the former Oregon legislator (and sponsor of the Honest Pint Act), former county commissioner, and former mayoral candidate. This may seem like an odd place for Bailey to land, but projects like this give the cerebral pol the chance to actually enact public policy without the downsides of electoral politics. It scratches a number of his long-established itches--working on environmental projects and solving difficult organizational problems.