Oregon would ramp up its prohibitions on plastic bags and cut back access to other single-use plastic items, under a bill state lawmakers are considering this year.
Senate Bill 551, known by supporters as the “beyond the bag ban bill,” looks to expand restrictions that the Legislature passed back in 2019. Bills approved that year barred restaurants, grocery stores and other stores from offering single-use plastic bags at checkout, and blocked restaurants from offering plastic straws unless they are requested by a customer. bags for liquid storage
State Sen. Janeen Sollman, right, a Hillsboro Democrat, is a chief sponsor of a bill to regulate single-use plastic products in the state.
SB 551 goes further. The bill would eliminate an exception included in the 2019 bill that allowed grocers to offer slightly thicker “reusable” plastic bags to customers for a small charge. It would also bar food service establishments from offering plastic cutlery or condiments in plastic packaging unless they are specifically requested beginning in July 2026.
And the bill prohibits hotels and other lodging establishments from automatically providing toiletries like shampoo or lotion in disposable plastic containers. That regulation would kick in for establishments with 50 or more rooms beginning in 2027. It would apply to all forms of lodging — including short-term rentals like Airbnb offerings — beginning in 2028.
“It’s past time that we have this conversation about the need for us to break our dependence on plastics,” state Sen. Janeen Sollman, a Hillsboro Democrat and a chief sponsor of the bill, said in a hearing on Wednesday. “Microplastics are everywhere: in the air that we breathe, the clothes that we wear and in our waterways and in the fish and the animals that some of us eat.”
The state’s attempts to rein in waste from plastic products have been divisive. When OPB asked for reactions after the state’s bag ban went into effect in 2020, it heard from thousands of people who had very different opinions about the policy.
But in its initial hearing, testimony was largely supportive of SB 551.
“Oregon has become a national leader in reducing plastic waste, but of course our work is not over,” said Celeste Meiffrin-Swango, state director of the group Environment Oregon. She added: “Plastic pollution has become a pressing environmental issue with ever increasing production of disposable plastic products outpacing our ability to deal with them.”
Charlie Plybon, Oregon policy director for the Surfrider Foundation, submitted a photo to lawmakers of an Oregon beach littered with plastic waste.
“This time of year we call ‘plastic debris season’ due to the massive volumes of single-use plastics and foam that washes ashore with large storms and tide events,” Plybon, whose group organizes beach cleanups, said in testimony. “Can you imagine having a debris season wash over your child’s ball field, your local park or school playground so thick you couldn’t see the ground beneath your feet?”
Oregon grocers also say they’re open to the changes proposed under SB 551. Shawn Miller, a lobbyist for the Northwest Grocery Retail Association, told lawmakers that it’s cheaper to provide paper bags to customers.
“From a business perspective, it’s a no-brainer,” Miller said. Grocers are requesting an amendment to the bill, however. They want the full ban on plastic bags to begin in January 2027 rather than July 2026 as currently written.
That’s because a similar bag ban passed in California last year will kick in next January. Miller said that move by the nation’s most populous state threatens to overwhelm the supply of paper bags.
“We want to make sure that we’re not doing it around the same time, and that the pulp and paper industry can really ramp up that production,” he said.
Not everyone is for SB 551. The bill inspired some testimony from ardent opponents like Heather Gray, a Marion County resident.
“Government needs to stay out of our personal business and stick to what is constitutional,” she wrote.
The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association did not weigh in on the bill.
Tags: Politics, Science & Environment, Plastic
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