CA's Recycling Center Crisis: What Can Local Consumers Do?

California’s container deposit system is facing an unprecedented crisis, with the closure of more than 1,300 recycling centers since 2013 – resulting in less recovered income for consumers, fewer jobs, and significant harm to the sustainable economy and the environment.

In early August, 284 rePlanet recycling centers closed, including two in Redondo Beach: at 1413 Hawthorne Blvd. and 1212 Beryl St.

Here's more information to answer your questions.

What’s the Best Way to Recycle My Empty Beverage Containers?

California is one of only 10 U.S. states with a deposit return system that allows you to return empty bottles and cans to a recycling location and get back the nickel or dime deposits you paid when you purchased them. California’s container recycling rate is 75% compared to the national average of 32%. Deposit return systems provide many important benefits:

• Creating an incentive to recycle by providing income to consumers through returned deposits;
• Producing higher recycling rates and collecting higher-quality materials compared to curbside (blue bin) programs;
• Keeping communities cleaner by reducing litter in public places;
• Lowering the amount of waste sent to landfills;
• Reducing the amount of plastic that enters our oceans and harms marine and human life;
• Decreasing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by lessening reliance on raw materials to manufacture new containers; and
• Creating recycling industry jobs.

But My Neighborhood Recycling Center Closed. What Should I Do?

1. First check to see if there are other nearby recycling centers. Go to www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/WhereToRecycle/, and use the search function to look for other centers in your area.

2. If you can’t find a recycling center in a convenient location, go to www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/InStoreRedemption to search for retailers that redeem in-store. More than 4,000 grocery stores and other retailers statewide have pledged to accept empty beverage containers and provide deposit refunds.

Note: If a store on this list will not take back your empty containers, email CalRecycle at [email protected] or [email protected], or call 1-800-RECYCLE.

I Still Can’t Find a Place to Return My Bottles and Cans. Should I Put Them in My Blue Bin?

Yes. Although container deposit programs offer significant benefits compared to curbside systems, the two types of programs can work together well to maximize bottle and can recovery rates. However, containers put into blue bins can get contaminated, making them non-recyclable and perhaps resulting in them being shipped to landfills. Please rinse out bottles and cans before adding them to your curbside bin, and make sure not to include any materials including food or other items (such as partly filled containers or pizza boxes with scraps on the cardboard).

Where Does My Money Go if I Don’t Return My Containers to a Recycling Center?

If you put your containers in a curbside blue bin, the deposits are returned to the curbside program that recycles your containers. If you put your containers in the trash, the containers go to the landfill and the deposit money you paid at the store stays in the state fund that is managed by CalRecycle.

Where Can I Learn More About Recycling in California?

Please visit the website of the Container Recycling Institute at www.container-recycling.org. This nonprofit organization is a leading authority on the economic and environmental impacts of used beverage containers and other consumer product packaging. Its mission is to make North America a global model for the collection and quality recycling of packaging materials.

How to Make Your Voice Heard!

Because CalRecycle’s payments to the recycling centers aren’t sufficient to meet the centers’ expenses, more than 1,300 centers in California have closed since 2013. (For more information from CalRecycle on this issue, visit www.calrecycle.ca.gov/markets/recyclingclosures.) If you are frustrated by the decreasing number of opportunities to return empty containers and put deposit money back in your pocket, contact CalRecycle (www.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/Contacts/) and the office of Governor Gavin Newsom (https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/).

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