ABSTRACT
Originally voted into law in 1971, Oregon House Bill (HB) 1036 was the first of its kind to embrace sustainability in both public and private business sectors. This law, better known as the Oregon Bottle Bill (OBB), was designed around a bottle return system that encouraged and ultimately fostered participation from consumers and beverage companies alike. It was designed to communicate a social value for sustainability to everyone and to increase sustainable behaviors. Since its inception, the program has generated as much as a 90 percent return rate for eligible containers, and it has reduced roadside litter on Oregon roads to the country’s lowest levels of accumulation (Container Recycling Institute, 2011). Today, ten other states and a number of foreign countries have enacted bottle bills modeled after the OBB.
