Plastic Bag Ban/fee Urban wood forum

Reprinted from AOR News January 2010

Association of Oregon Recyclers
January 28th forum explores plastic bag bans and wood markets

Plastic bag bans is the topic of the morning session at the AOR forum on January 28.

From Australia to the U.K. and all across the U.S., politicians and corporations are pondering banning or taxing plastic bags. However, last year Seattle voters rejected a plan to place a 20-cent fee on all plastic and paper carryout bags, and Portland Mayor Sam Adams dropped his plan to tax grocery bags, citing the depressed economy; meanwhile, Washington DC has moved ahead with a ban this year. Why is a recycling association leading the discussion of a potential ban? Every day, Oregon Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) remove hundreds of thousands of plastic bags and various film plastics from the curbside end up as rejects at the paper mill and are sent to the landfill.

Senator Mark Hass intends to write up a bill this February proposing a plastic bag ban in Oregon. The Senator has agreed to attend the forum (schedule allowing). We will also hear from representatives from MRFs, local governments, DEQ, plastic packaging manufacturers, end-market representatives and others. The afternoon session will provide information and lively discussion on urban wood recycling in Oregon. With the decline in demand for newsprint paper, the domestic mills that often utilize urban wood for fuel are utilizing considerably less. We will hear about the current challenges to suppliers due to lack of demand for urban wood.

Another aspect of urban wood recycling is a new federal program known as the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) which may have unintended consequences for urban wood recovery. The BCAP is a matching-dollars program meant to stimulate the use of slash, waste from the harvesting of trees, as well as other qualifying agricultural wastes for biomass fuel. At this time urban wood does not qualify for the program.

This new program will be explained by Lois Loop from the Department of Agriculture. The final rules for the program are scheduled to be released this month and we may have the opportunity to hear about them first hand. Though the program has not yet been implemented in Oregon, we will hear from Wade Mosby, Sr. Vice-President of the Collins Group, on his company’s experience utilizing the BCAP in California. We will also discuss alternative uses for urban wood and receive an update on the changes being made to the BETC tax credit program and the impact it may have on biomass facilities. We will hear from wood processors, program administrators and end-users and hear your ideas on how to address these challenges in the new year!

You can attend one session or both. The cost for both sessions is $75 (members and non-members). If you want to attend the plastics session only, the cost is $50; the wood session only is $50. Students can attend both sessions for a total of $40. Sign up soon -- registration fees increase by $25 after January 20. Lunch, snacks and coffee are included. The forum will be held at Abernethy Center, 606 15th Street in Oregon City, 97045. The speakers’ roster is still being firmed up. Watch the AOR listserv or website for developing details.