Eco-tip: Getting back your deposit for cans, bottles

Two weeks ago, RePlanet closed hundreds of recycling centers throughout the state, leaving consumers in many areas without nearby options for can and bottle refunds.

To get back the 5 to 10 cents of California Redemption Value you paid when you purchased beverage containers, you can still find buyback centers by calling 800-RECYCLE or visiting https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/BevContainer/RecyclingCenters. However, many other recycling companies have been under the same pressures and have also been closing over the past few years, so buyback recycling is becoming less convenient.

Learn more about recycling:

• Contrasting European, American recycling
• Plastics still collected in curbside recycling despite market challenges
• Leave the top on when recycling plastic bottles

Of course, recycling is also available through curbside collection, drop-off programs, and occasional charity fundraisers, but a reduction of paid recycling options is causing concerns. In the past week, I have received several inquiries and comments on this topic:

• Mike Swimmer, of Ojai, emailed to ask me whether new technologies will present alternatives by making recovery of energy from waste more efficient.
• Lisa Lubert, of Ventura, commented to me via Nextdoor.com, “Hopefully, they will stop charging us the recycle fee then!”
• Thomas Duck, of Moorpark, emailed me, “If we can’t get our redemption money anymore, why should the State of California still require that stores continue to charge redemption fees? Will all of this money get dumped into a slush fund somewhere?”

CalRecycle is considering strategies to increase options for container buyback, such as potential enforcement of in-store redemption requirements. However, even before the recent closure of recycling centers, the state had to manage millions of dollars from unredeemed deposits.

Money on the table

According to the website of the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), about 24.5 billion California Refund Value eligible containers were sold in 2018, and of those, more than 18.5 billion were recycled. This left about 6 billion bottles unredeemed, at a value estimated on the website at more than $100 million.

Some of that money is available in the form of competitive grants. School districts, some Indian tribes, local governments, universities, school districts and nonprofit organizations are among those eligible to submit proposals for funding to “address recycling challenges, aid in increasing beverage container collection, and reduce beverage container litter in the waste stream.” However, this competitive grant program is limited by legislation to just $1.5 million per year statewide.

The most recent winner in Ventura County was the city of Oxnard, which in 2016 got a $249,066 grant to help the Oxnard City Corps increase recycling and little abatement activities as well as to start recycling programs in multi-family residential buildings. Through a program separate from these grants, Conservation Corps statewide also received approximately $6 million of direct payments from unredeemed deposits in 2018.

Application materials for grant funding will likely be available this winter. At https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Listservs/Subscribe/121, you can join a listserv to receive emails when notices of funds available are released.

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A larger portion of those funds are available to your city or county for administering local recycling programs. CalRecycle made $10.5 million in payments to cities and counties for beverage container recycling and litter cleanup activities in 2018.

CalRecycle also uses funds to provide incentive payments for buyback centers to stay open in areas lacking other centers. These “handling fees” went mostly to supermarket-sited recycling centers in 2018.

Similarly, CalRecycle also makes “supplemental payments” to make sorting centers and curbside recycling programs more viable.

In 2018, the state used unredeemed deposits to pay $15 million to curbside and similar recycling programs, as well as $10 million to curbside recycling programs and drop-off or collection programs to specifically to promote the recycling of glass, according to the CalRecycle website.

Besides glass, CalRecycle also had a special program for plastic, allocating $10 million more annually until 2017 to assist manufacturers using recycled plastic to make their products.

CalRecycle also spent $46 million on program administration last year and $2.5 million on a “statewide public education and information campaign” to promote bottle and can recycling.

Reasons to recycle

Of course, there are good environmental reasons to recycle, even if a payment is no longer a convenient option of you.

According to the CalRecycle website, recycling 10 pounds of aluminum eliminates 37 pounds of carbon emissions from the air; recycling 10 pounds of clear plastic water or soda bottles, cuts 3.3 pounds of carbon emissions; and recycling 10 pounds of glass bottles reduces carbon by nearly a pound.

Eco-Tip is written by David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst for the Ventura County Public Works Agency. He can be reached at 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.