Oregon’s New Recycling Fee Law Challenged as Unconstitutional

Oregon’s recently implemented recycling law wrongly sets fees on packaging producers and unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state producers, a group of wholesale distributors said in a new federal lawsuit.

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors challenged the state’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act Wednesday, arguing the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality granted a private organization authority to set “eco-modulated” fees “without legislative standards or procedural safeguards.”

The trade group, which sued in the US District Court for the District of Oregon after member companies began receiving invoices from a “producer responsibility organization,” says the move violated the state constitution’s nondelegation doctrine. ...