OAR 340-090-0830: Contamination Management Fee

A producer responsibility organization shall pay a commingled recycling processing facility that meets the requirements of ORS 459A.905(2)(a) for the cost of removing and disposing of covered products that are contaminants as provided by this rule. (1) Calculation of Fee and Invoicing. The contamination management fee shall be the fee rate provided by Section (2) multiplied by the tons of eligible material provided by Section (3) multiplied by .467, the percentage of contamination in the average ton of commingled recyclable material that is covered product. The fee shall be calculated and invoiced by a commingled recycling processing facility on forms provided by DEQ. The fee shall be invoiced no more than once per month and payment must be made within 45 days of invoice. (2) Fee Rate. The fee rate shall be the following: (a) $341 for the 2025 and 2026 program years, July 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026; (b) $432 for the 2027 program year, January 1, 2027 – December 31, 2027; (c) $418 for all program years after the 2027 program year. (3) Tons of eligible material shall be determined by weighting eligible material. (a) For purposes of this rule eligible material is: (A) Any covered product, as defined under ORS 459A.863(6), that is not listed for collection on the Uniform Statewide Collection List, under ORS 459A.914(1)(a), and is in the inbound stream at a commingled recycling processing facility; and (B) Any covered product that is included in the Uniform Statewide Collection List but which was improperly prepared by system users to the point the material requires significant additional effort for the processing facility to handle or market. (C) Eligible material does not include ineligible material, as described in Subsection (b). (b) For purposes of this rule ineligible material is: (A) Any material that is listed on the Uniform Statewide Collection List and properly prepared for recycling; (B) Any material that is not a covered product as defined by ORS 459A.863(6)(b); (C) Any material that originated outside of Oregon; and (D) Any material originating in a mixed waste processing system that has been transferred to a co-located commingled recycling processing facility for the purposes of processing. (4) Covered product contamination. (a) A commingled recycling processing facility may include in the contamination management fee all tons of Oregon-generated covered product contamination processed and marketed, provided that the covered product is accepted and desired by the responsible end market and all other standards for reporting and responsible end markets are met, as stated under OAR 340-096-0310. (b) A ton described in this Section may only be included in an invoice for contamination management fee funding if the non-Uniform Statewide Collection List material is baled or otherwise marketed separately from uniform statewide collection list material. (c) The fee for a ton of material described in this section will be the total tons of material processed and marketed multiplied by the fee rate in Section (2) multiplied by the following adjustment: (A) 75 percent for all glass covered product contamination processed and marketed; (B) 80 percent for non- Uniform Statewide Collection List covered product plastic material processed and marketed; and (C) 100 percent of the established fee rate for covered film plastic processed and marketed. (d) The fee shall be calculated and invoiced by a commingled recycling processing facility on forms provided by DEQ. The fee shall be invoiced no more than once per month and payment must be made within 45 days of invoice. (5) Reporting and Review. (a) Commingled recycling process facilities shall report information related to the fee described in this rule as required by DEQ, including but not limited to: (A) Reporting of ineligible tons of out of state generated material processed; (B) Reporting of transactional data associated with each inbound load of commingled recyclables delivered to the facility, as required by DEQ; (C) Monthly reporting of the invoiceable outbound residual tonnage figure and the total tons of covered product contamination sent to market. These two items cannot be reported in a combined manner. (b) DEQ shall review the fee at least once every five years, but no more frequently than once per year. (c) DEQ or a producer responsibility organization may conduct on-site and off-site assessments of facility-specific data, to ensure data is accurate and that a processing facility is not invoicing for ineligible material. If a commingled recycling processing facility invoices and is paid by a producer responsibility organization for tons of material that were not eligible for the fee under this rule the commingled recycling processing facility shall promptly reimburse the producer responsibility organization.