A bill that would allow Oregonians to bring their own reusable food containers to restaurants and food service establishments is one step closer to becoming a reality. Senate Bill 545 passed the Oregon Senate March 15. It’s now under consideration by the House Climate, Energy and Environment committee.
SB 545 would direct the Oregon Health Authority to adopt rules that permit people to bring “visibly clean” containers to restaurants and get filled with food. It’s one of three bills moving through the Oregon legislature this session aimed at reducing Oregonians’ use certain types of single-use containers.
Allowing reusable containers in food service is an effort that’s already seeing some traction in the state. Earlier this year, the Oregon Department of Agriculture adopted some rules that allow grocery store customers to bring their own reusable containers to fill up on foods typically found in bulk sections. SB 545 goes a step further by allowing for personal containers at restaurants.
Oregon set a goal to recover at least 25% of both its food waste and plastic waste from landfills and incinerators by the year 2020, but the state fell short of that goal, recovering just 13.7% of plastic in 2020, according to reporting in the Salem Statesman Journal. The state recovered just 10.1% of its food waste that same year.
“Reducing food container waste is good for our environment,” Sen. Janeen Sollman, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 545, stated in a press release. “This is a simple, sensible change that will encourage a more sustainable and resilient future for ourselves and generations to come.”
Two other Senate bills are also aimed at changing the way Oregonians package food. Senate Bill 543 would ban food service providers from serving prepared food in polystyrene foam containers, and would ban the use of food containers that are not compostable, fiber-based or recyclable in the state of Oregon. The bill would also ban food containers that contain per- and poly-fluorinated substances — often called “forever chemicals” — in the state.
Meanwhile, Senate Bill 544 would direct the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to create a program for “source reduction of single-use plastic food ware and single-use packaging and achieve 25 percent source reductions compared to 2023 levels by 2030,” according to the bill summary.
Neither SB 543 nor SB 544 have yet been scheduled for a vote as of press time.
This article appears in Source Weekly March 23, 2023.
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