Watchdog recommends making it mandatory for bottles and cans to be redeemed at any retailer that sells them
Image: Consumer Watchdog urges California to prioritise recycling reform. Photo: courtesy of Adam Novak from Pixabay.
US-based Consumer Watchdog announced that California’s Governor has to prioritise recycling reform in the coming months, due to the closure of the largest operator of bottle redemption centres in the state.
The rePlanet has shut down its last 284 centres, and is managing few places to receive bottles and can deposit refunds for consumers.
Consumer Watchdog calls to prioritise recycling reform in coming months
Consumer Watchdog has urged to CalRecycle, the state agency in charge of recycling, to make immediate redemption of bottles and cans through every grocery and convenience store chain.
Consumer advocate Liza Tucker said: “We warned just months ago that the bottle deposit program was in crisis and today’s closure shows consumers are being left in the lurch by the failure of the state to keep recycling centres open.
“Governor Newsom needs to tackle this problem personally and make reform of the broken bottle deposit system a top priority this fall. CalRecycle has failed to deal with the problems we have raised and they have now become a full blown crisis for consumers and recycling in California.”
Consumer Watchdog’s March report revealed that consumers get only about half of their nickel and dime bottle and can deposits back each year, despite paying $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in 2018.
It has also recommended making redemption of bottles and cans mandatory at any retailer that sells them.
Eight out of nine other states need beverage retailers to take empties back in store along with redemption centres, said Consumer Watchdog
Some states make the beverage industry to take responsibility for managing the programmes and offering consumers convenient ways to redeem empties.
Over 40% of all redemption centres have closed in the last five years. Consumer Watchdog, along with the Container Recycling Institute, anticipated in March that hundreds of more closures were on the way due to severe underpayments by the state to support redemption centres in the face of dropping prices for commodities such as aluminium and PET plastic.
Earlier this year, the US state of New York has announced a ban on single-use plastic shopping bags in its 2019-2020 budget.