Recycling rates are falling in California. For the first time in a decade, the percentage of beverage containers being recycled has dropped below 80 percent. The decline means that about 1.7 million containers that five years ago were being recycled are today being buried in landfills or, worse, tossed aside as litter. Part of the problem is that California’s landmark Bottle Bill is broken. There is an urgent need to fix it, starting with steps that elected representatives here in Sacramento can be take right away.
Enacted 30 years ago, the Bottle Bill placed California in the vanguard of the modern recycling movement. The idea was elegantly simple: levy a small charge (a “redemption value”) on each beverage container sold, and then refund it when the container is turned over to be recycled. It created a financial incentive, small but effective, to encourage consumers to do the right thing. The Bottle Bill has been spectacularly successful. Over the years, nearly 400 billion containers have been recycled.
The program is faltering today because the process for consumers to reclaim the redemption value has become less convenient. Almost 1,000 neighborhood recycling and redemption centers have been shuttered over the last five years and two economic factors are to blame. First, the underlying value of recyclable materials has plunged, making it harder than ever for recycling centers to turn a profit.
Secondly, while wages, benefits, fuel, rent and most other costs have steadily risen, the processing fee meant to support the industry which is paid by the state, has dropped sharply, from about $1.05 to process 100 containers in 2015 to about 83 cents today. These two factors have created a tsunami of uncertainty in the industry and caused many redemption centers to simply shut their doors.
State officials and businesses in the recycling industry have been discussing for years modifications to the Bottle Bill to adapt it to a variety of factors that have changed over the last 30 years. Those discussions should go forward; all good things need to be kept up to date. But immediate action is needed before the state’s recycling infrastructure collapses entirely. An urgency bill, SB 452 by Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, is now before the Assembly and must be sent to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown by Aug. 31.
Read the full story at http://capitolweekly.net/urgent-need-fix-californias-bottle-bill/.