A major manufacturer of glass bottles plans to shut down its manufacturing operations and cut dozens of jobs at a facility in Oregon.
Owens Brockway, a subsidiary of Ohio-based O-I Glass Inc., operates the nearly 70-year-old glass manufacturing and recycling plant on Portland’s northeast side. The company informed state officials this week that it would close down the facility’s bottle production line, and lay off 90 workers, in a bid to reduce “redundant capacity” throughout its operations.
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The move comes just over two years after the facility slashed what then amounted to about 70% of its workforce, over what it called a downturn in the local wine industry. The facility has also run afoul of air quality regulators in recent decades over its glass melting furnaces; new pollution controllers were installed at the plant last summer under an agreement with Oregon officials.
Owens Brockway will continue to operate a warehouse at the Portland site, and officials also indicated that the move is not expected to affect glass recycling under Oregon’s landmark “Bottle Bill” — a recycling refund measure dating back to the early 1970s.
The Oregon Journalism Project reported that a nearby facility, also owned by O-I, expects to continue to take in tens of millions of pounds of glass from the cooperative that manages the bill — and turn it into new bottles.
The Owens Brockway layoffs are reportedly set to take effect Tuesday.
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