House Bill 3220
The state of Oregon has recently moved to adjust its electronic recycling program by enacting new legislation. This bill requires an addition of devices, and alters the way manufacturers are required to fulfill their collection obligations.
On June 24th, the Oregon House and Senate members gave their approval for the proposed bill, House Bill 3220. Now, the document is awaiting Democratic Governor, Tina Kotek’s, signature.
The bill ultimately gained approval, following a series of amendments, within both chambers of Congress. The House voting 56 for, 4 excused, and the Senate seeing 23 in favor, 1 opposing and 6 absent.
Upon signature, this piece of legislation would extend the already established 14-year-old e-scrap program to encompass a variety of household devices ranging from fax machines, VCRs, mobile digital music players, DVD players and recorders, video gaming consoles and other consumer electronics. The existing program only covers computers, televisions, monitors, printers, keyboards and mice.
PROs vs. State Contractors
Oregon has a dual system of collecting and recycling electronics, a producer responsibility organization (PRO) that represents the larger electronics brands, as well as a state contractor program to handle recycling on behalf of various OEMs. However, this bill would remove the state contractors and instead allow for multiple PROs to take on all collection and recycling tasks.
HB 3220 has additional provisions related to the locations of collection sites. Instead of solely requiring one site in each county, and another in any city populated with more than 10,000 people, the revised law will demand that 95% of citizens live within a 15-mile radius of a collection site. Additionally, every county must contain at least a facility, and cities must provide an appropriate number of sites according to respective populations.
The new legislation also stipulates that PROs now must formalize agreements with any authorized transfer station, landfill, or recycling center that wishes to join Oregon’s E-Cycles program. These signed contracts will be necessary for these locations to become official collection sites.
The PROs would be required to, “provide convenient and equitable service throughout the state, including to rural areas and minority, lower-income and other historically underserved populations.”
Portland, the biggest city in Oregon with close to 648,000 inhabitants, would need to have a minimum of 18 waste collection sites according to the conditions laid out by the bill. This is due to the stipulation that for a population size over 200,000 there needs to be one facility for every 50,000 people. Analysis of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) shows that there are currently 16 sites inside Portland city limits.
The bill contains several modifications, most will be implemented on January 1st, 2026.
PSI Hired to Help Gain Feedback
The DEQ in Oregon hired the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) to facilitate outreach and gather commentary prior to its release. The organization held five public workshops as well as multiple individual meetings in February to gain feedback.
Back in November, the DEQ held a meeting attended by E-Scrap News. During this workshop, many of the ideas that would be included in the legislature bill were discussed. The DEQ stated its desire to get agreement from key stakeholders before proposing it officially. The individual behind this progressive piece of legislation is Rep. Pam Marsh, a Democrat residing in southern Oregon.
The Oregon state legislature has also recently moved forward with a right-to-repair bill, which would guarantee access to essential tools, parts, and information for independent repair stores as well as individual customers. This bill is intended to foster better competition between service providers, and give consumers more choice when it comes to receiving repairs.
