Bay Area Lawmaker Proposes Reforms For Recycling Bottles, Cans

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, is seeking to reshape the way bottles and cans are recycled throughout the state, his office announced Monday.

According to Ting, Assembly Bill 1840, intends to reform the state's Beverage Container Recycling Program.

Ting said many Californians have decreased recycling because they're having harder times finding sites where they can collect their California Redemption Value refunds. Consumers pay the CRV when they purchase beverages from a store, however, when the containers are recycled, the CRV is refunded.

As a result, he said, recycling in the state has dropped from 85 percent to 75 percent and much of the state's recyclables end up in landfills.

"We can no longer kick the proverbial can down the road," Ting said in a statement. "If California is to continue its leadership on the environment, we must deal with this problem that's been in front of us for years."

Ting's Bill builds off of AB 54, Ting's measure that took effect back in October and helped launch five mobile recycling programs in areas severely impacted by the closure of CRV redemption sites.

The state's one-time largest recycling company rePlanet closed its 284 remaining sites throughout California last summer.

The firm closed hundreds of locations due to a decrease in the price of aluminum and recycled plastics, coupled with international waste material market conditions, Ting's office said.

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