A new program outlined in California Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget could bring an additional $100 million in additional recycling credits to Californians and direct $155 million to expand the locations of mobile recycling and reverse vending machines that let consumers redeem their bottles and cans under the California Beverage Container Recycling Program, the state’s Bottle Bill.
According to a press release from CalRecycle, Newsom’s budget proposal would use $330 million in surplus unredeemed container deposits to promote redemptions and expand recycling locations. “This surplus belongs to California consumers, and we want to put that money back into their pockets through rewarding recycling points and more convenient redemption options,” said Rachel Machi Wagoner, director of CalRecycle. "These targeted investments will create more recycling opportunities in areas without recycling centers and provide double California Redemption Value (CRV) refunds to return excess deposits to Californians."
According to CalRecycle, Californians recycled 18.5 billion bottles and cans from July 2020 to June 2021, an increase of approximately 800 million containers from the previous fiscal year. However, sales grew even more during this period as people continued to drink more beverages at home. The new $330 million proposal will use a variety of strategies to reach underserved areas, provide more redemption options, and give Californians bonus recycling points for their unredeemed bottles and cans:
● $55 million will be allocated to increase returns in rural and underserved communities through a state-funded mobile recycling program.
● $100 million will be allocated to add approximately 2,000 reverse vending machines through grants to high schools, colleges, and retailers that are obligated to redeem containers in-store.
● $100 million will be designated to double consumer refunds through reward recycling credits once new mobile recycling and reverse vending machine programs are in place.
● $50 million will be used to maximize the quality of returned beverage containers to help more be recycled into new beverage containers, consistent with AB 793.
● $25 million will be allocated for new infrastructure and technology to support redemption and administrative costs.
“Californians want to recycle, and they are doing their part, returning 18.5 billion bottles and cans last (fiscal) year. That’s a recycling rate of nearly 70 percent,” Waggoner said. “By providing Californians with more redemption options and new opportunities to succeed, we can get closer to 100 percent recycling.”
More details are available in the administration’s spring fiscal letter from the Department of Finance. The Legislature will have an opportunity to review the proposal and work with the Newsom administration during the ongoing budget-making process in the coming months.
CalRecycle said maximizing reuse and recycling of all materials sold in California is critical to the state’s larger effort to build a clean, circular economy in California. In addition to creating new redemption opportunities and jobs across the state, the $330 million investment in surplus container deposits will help California meet its 80% beverage container recycling goal and provide clean materials to help meet the state’s minimum content goals for recycled glass and plastic.
Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, has expressed support for the proposals.
"It's great to see the administration committing to getting consumers their CRV deposits back and making a big investment in more convenient redemptions," Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said in a news release. "This is the people of California's money, and it's shocking to see hundreds of millions of dollars in unredeemed deposits sitting in bank accounts. Investments in automated technology and creating redemption opportunities in underserved areas will help right this sinking ship. Hopefully, this is the start of a bold government response to the bottle deposit crisis."
The court continued, "We support a limited period of double refunds, but urge the administration to focus double refunds in areas of recycling deserts. There are fraud problems in some counties with very high redemption rates, such as San Benito, where the redemption rate is an incredibly high 106%. People in recycling deserts should receive additional refunds because it is difficult to find places to recycle. Overall, this is a very positive step, but we want to ensure that the funds go into the hands of consumers and not the hands of fraudsters."
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