As of April 1, Oregon will be offering a tantalizing 10 cents for recycled bottles. Before you get too excited, realize that this is more of a punishment than a reward. Though the state will be effectively doubling the payout for glass, metal, and plastic bottles, it is because we have been doing D quality work for the last two years.

You may notice that your bottles currently say OR 5 cents. This will not change since Michigan is the only other state to have upped the ante so far – they will still give you 10 cents. Again, this covers most glass, metal, and plastic bottles less than 3 fluid liters. The fun part is if you really wanted to, you could save all your bottles until April 1 and cash out all at once.

Oregon has decided to offer a larger incentive because when left to our own devices, we have recycled less than 80% of consumed products for the second year in a row. According to Bottlebill.org, recycle rates for metal was nearly 71%, glass was close to 68%, but plastics were below 52%. In fact, recycled bottle rates dropped from 68.26% in 2014 to 64.45% in 2015, so like…not even close to 80%.

As you stroll away from one of Oregon’s 19 BottleDrop locations, a map of which can be found online, with a crisp green Jackson in your pocket, be sad. If you had recycled more in the last two years, this wouldn’t be happening and we could all be making 5 cents like it says on the bottles.

By Anthony Vitale