A federal judge Thursday upheld Oregon’s 2021 recycling law, calling it innovative and rejecting the claim by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors that it violated federal law or interfered with interstate commerce. The law was drafted and approved to advance Oregon’s policy goal of shifting its recycling costs from governmental entities to producers. The decision comes after five days of testimony last July.
Federal judge Michael H. Simon quoted from a 1932 dissent by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who wrote that to pause “experimentation in things social and economic is a grave responsibility.” Simon also cited a more recent 2023 ruling in a case that held that companies that choose to sell products in various states “must normally comply with the laws of those various states.” Judge Simon’s ruling also stated that the Act “continues to show innovative leadership toward solving serious local, national, and even international problems caused by plastic and other forms of waste and packaging pollution.”
NAW sued Oregon over the Act, claiming it imposed arbitrary and excessive fees on businesses and interfered with interstate commerce. The wholesaler-distributors raised two objections: the Act violated due process because the regulators authority was a non-profit organization and not the state government, and that the law violated the Dormant Commerce Clause by exempting Oregon public agencies, small retail businesses, restaurants and food carts while forcing out-of-state suppliers to absorb program costs.
Judge Simon rejected both arguments, adding that NAW did not prove the fees were excessive when compared to the program’s needs. Simon wrote in his ruling, “The process is more than adequate.”
Oregon is the first of seven states to have a packaging recycling law, and NAW has filed suits in other states as well.
Oregon became the first of seven states to adopt a packaging recycling law. Under the Oregon law, which took effect in 2022, the producers of packaging must bear some of the costs of collecting and recycling certain packaging materials. These companies must report the quantity of packaging they distribute in Oregon and pay fees based on weight. The material includes packaging, printing and writing paper and food serviceware.