Oregon Reduces
Building a cultural norm of reuse through the power of community organization.
How it Works:
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Join our community of volunteers. Meet like-minded people, make friends and help unite and build communities through waste reduction.
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Contact businesses to build our network. Visit businesses in Oregon to encourage them to join our BYO movement and display the Oregon Reduces sticker to let customers know they offer single-use items only upon request by their customers.
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Document your journey. As we build our network, we will update our map of businesses that volunteers recruit to support BYO across Oregon!
U.S. Reduces Network
Oregon Reduces is part of the larger U.S. Reduces Network, which increases the power and impact of waste reduction efforts by supporting and encouraging organization at the local level. Through neighborhood-based groups that bring together residents and businesses to advocate for positive change, this network is building healthier communities for today and future generations.
Participating Businesses:
Join an Onboarding Session:
There are three yearly onboarding sessions where WFA will explain the campaign in detail and provide tools for new volunteers to begin their business outreach. If you're curious about this opportunity, consider joining an info session!
Please check back soon for the orientation schedule for January 2025.
In Oregon it has been permissible to bring your own container to refill beverages for quite some time. Think coffee mugs, growlers for kombucha, beer, or wine, and water bottles filled by the customer. Regulations were silent on bulk bins and other refill options, thus they were not permissible.
That changed in February 2023 when the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) adopted new rules that enabled reusable containers to be used more widely in retail establishments. Now consumers are allowed to refill their own visually clean container when buying in bulk and shopping for produce. Establishments are also allowed to create procedures that permit employees to fill customer provided containers with other foods. ODA created this helpful guide. It should be noted that establishments are not required to permit customers to refill their own containers. However, we hope that establishments will choose to allow reusables because of consumer demand and the cost savings that they can incur.
What about restaurants? On May 8, 2023 the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 545, directing the Oregon Health Authority to adopt new rules allowing consumers to fill their own containers at food establishments. The new rules went into effect on June 30, 2024. Consumer-owned containers can be used both for leftovers and can be filled as to-go containers directly by food service establishments.
Portland has additional rules about disposable products provided by food establishments. In 2019 the city enacted the Single-use plastics by-request policy. This policy says that businesses in Portland cannot automatically include plastic straws, stirrers, utensils, or individually packaged condiments in a customer’s order for dine-in, drive-through, take-out, or delivery. The listed single use items can only be provided upon customer request. Establishments that violate the policy could face a fine. More information on this policy can be found here.