California shuts down several recycling redemption centers

The Mercury News, San Jose, California, reports that more than one-fifth of California’s recycling redemption centers have closed in the past year because of the fluctuating market for certain recyclables.

Redemption centers allow consumers to claim deposits charged for bottles and cans. A report from the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit based in Culver City, California, estimates that these closures have inconvenienced almost 3 million residents, which may reduce recycling across the state.

“The extent that consumers give up and put containers in trash or recycling bins, those are people who were denied the opportunity to get their refund,” Susan Collins, CRI president, told the newspaper. “And we know that is affecting consumers to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.” 

According to the article, state lawmakers are calling for a major redesign to California’s recycling program. Advocates say the state’s program to allocate subsidies to recycling centers during market fluctuations includes a minimum three-month lag and has failed to keep up with the rapid decrease in value of glass, plastic and aluminum.

Collins added that the lag has led to centers being underpaid by the state by more than $50 million since 2012, the newspaper says. 

“Once you come up with a number like that, it’s woefully obviously why so many centers couldn’t take it anymore and had to close,” Collins said. 

“If regular California consumers find it too difficult and inconvenient to redeem and recycle their containers, they may begin to view the program as a tax,” Mark Murray, executive director of Sacramento-based advocacy group Californians Against Waste, told the newspaper. “Why am I paying this CRV (California Redemption Value) tax at the grocery store without a path for me to conveniently get my money back?”