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Californians recycling more beverage containers
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By Dave Downey
North County Times
January 1, 2008
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It's amazing what a penny can do. State officials credit last year's
one-cent increase in the refund people receive for returning used beverage
containers for boosting California's bottle-and-can recycling rate to more
than 70 percent in 2007.
The rate surged from 65 percent during the first six months of 2006 to 71
percent in the same period last year. It marked the first time in about a
decade that the 70-percent threshold has been cracked for recyclable
beverage containers that can be cashed in, Mark Oldfield, spokesman for the
California Department of Conservation, said in a telephone interview Monday.
"The California public has taken to recycling in a big way," said Gene
Frick, a Sierra Club representative in Riverside.
On Jan. 1, 2007, the basic reimbursement rate for plastic, glass and
aluminum bottles and cans went from 4 cents per container to 5 cents, while
the rate for containers 24 ounces and larger went from 8 cents to a dime. It
was the first such increase in three years.
No additional increases are planned for 2008.
"It was heartening to see that the CRV (California refund value) increase
had the desired effect," Oldfield said, adding that the hike was combined
with a media blitz to call attention to the change.
Jacy Bolden, interim executive director for the Solana Center for
Environmental Innovation in Encinitas, said it helped that this time the
increase moved the refund to round numbers.
"Just think about it," Bolden said. "If you see a nickel laying on the
ground or a penny on the ground, what are you going to go for? Obviously
you're going to go for the nickel. Now all of the sudden it (recycling) is
more worth your time."
Recyclers in California have been able to get cash for returning their used
beverage containers for two decades, ever since lawmakers decided to launch
a program in 1988 to divert soda and beer cans and bottles away from the
state's rapidly filling dumps.
Oldfield said 52 percent of those items were recycled in the inaugural year
and the proportion reached 80 percent in 1991, following a significant
increase in the refund rate.
Through much of the 1990s, Californians recycled about three-quarters of
their beer and soda containers, although the rate began to slide downward in
the second half of the decade, he said.
Then, in 2000, California expanded the program to include bottled water as
well as store-bought containers of fruit juices, vegetable juices, coffee
and tea to keep up with the growing diversity of drinks people were
purchasing.
"The water bottle is one that has become kind of ubiquitous," he said.
"Everyone is carrying a water bottle these days."
But, Oldfield said, the program expansion triggered a sharp decrease in the
statewide beverage container recycling rate.
The annual rate dipped to 60 percent for 2001 and to 55 percent in 2003, and
was no higher than 60 percent as recently as 2006, he said.
And, so, he said, it is encouraging to see the surge in recycling interest
for the wider array of products eligible for refunds.
As people clean up from their New Year's Eve parties, they may want to
remember that the expansion did not cover everything, and that containers of
wine, distilled spirits and milk still do not qualify for a refund.
"Those plastic and glass containers are still recyclable," Oldfield said.
"It's just that there's no California refund that goes with them and most
people just put them in their recycling bins."
In the future, California lawmakers should consider including those and
other items, said Dan Jacobson, a lobbyist for the Environment California
conservation group in Sacramento.
Another lobbyist said communities also need to take the initiative to
recycle a broader array of items.
"To get to some really significant (recycling) levels," said Steve Aceti,
executive director for the California Coastal Coalition, "cities are going
to have to expand the recycling they are doing to multifamily dwellings and
to get the recycling centers to accept more kinds of plastics." The Coastal
Coalition lobbies on behalf of the state's coastal cities and counties.
It is time, Aceti said, to start recycling such items as Styrofoam cups and
the clamshell containers that hold fast food.
And Jacobson said it is time for manufacturers to take steps to reduce their
plastic packaging, which can account for a quarter or more of household
garbage.
"We just produce way too much junk in our state and it has huge
environmental problems," he said.
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