Eastern Oregon鈥檚 largest city is preparing to introduce a curbside recycling program next year. The city of Hermiston announced that its City Council will consider adopting recycling fees in anticipation of launching the curbside program.
The move comes in response to the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act, a 2021 law that standardized what could be recycled in Oregon and established packaging fees for certain items sold in the state. The law also required all cities with more than 4,000 people to offer curbside recycling services, a mandate the city is complying with, if not enthusiastically.
鈥淚mplementation of this radically new system has come with a bumpy rollout and a timeline rollercoaster as cities face meeting the deadlines of this new requirement amid supply-chain uncertainty, and cashflow questions,鈥� assistant city manager Mark Morgan wrote in a report to the city council.