California recycling centers close

Under California law, grocery stores and similar outlets that sell beverages in recyclable containers are required to sit within half a mile of a recycling facility or to maintain a facility on-site or face a $100-per-day fine. The only alternative would be to accept the recyclables themselves, the paper says. 

 

“The choice is to either take that garbage at a checkout line, which we would fear health inspectors coming in and say no to that,” California Grocers Association lobbyist Aaron Moreno told the paper. “The alternative is paying $36,500. Grocery stores should get some kind of relief because this is a situation where we literally did nothing wrong.”

 

“This is a crisis for consumers who aren’t going to be able to get their money back on the containers they’ve purchased,” Mark Murray, executive director of Sacramento-based Californians Against Waste, told the newspaper. “It’s a crisis of the stores who aren’t fond of taking containers back inside the store, and it’s a crisis for recycling centers who want to be in the business of taking back containers but can’t make it work in this financial market.” 

 

Gov. Jerry Brown has rejected a stopgap budget plan proposed by the California Grocers Association as a short-term solution. H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Deptartment of Finance, told the Bee that the state’s recycling program needs significant redesign. 

 

“We’ve been pushing for a comprehensive solution, going back a couple years, to get the [recycling] fund on an even keel,” Palmer said.