Californians will soon have more places to cash in their empty bottles and cans, according to California’s recycling agency CalRecycle.
CalRecycle just awarded nearly $70 million in grants for 37 projects to add new recycling methods such as mobile recycling, bag-drop sites, and reverse vending machines—which allow users to insert empty bottles or cans in exchange for cash or coupons.
The awards will fund more than 250 new recycling sites in 30 counties across California, including the rural counties of Butte, Imperial, Lassen, Mendocino, and Merced.
Supermarket chains Save Mart and Smart & Final were awarded over $2 million each for reverse vending machines in 19 counties, according to the agency.
CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller said the funding will give Californians innovative new ways to cash in their containers and will create more recycled materials for manufacturers in the state.
“These new sites will make redemption as simple as feeding containers into a machine or dropping off a bag of empty containers,” Heller said in a statement on Aug. 27.
The agency is planning to award nearly $215 million in more grants this year to boost the state’s recycling efforts.
Along with the increased funding come more requirements for beverage retailers. Starting Jan. 1, large beverage retailers in areas without recycling centers will be required to set up systems for redeeming beverage container deposits in-store, or create or join a non-profit cooperative to give customers ways to redeem recyclables.
Cooperatives will benefit from state funding and will have the flexibility to offer reverse vending machines, mobile recycling, or bag-drop recycling options.
Dealers may face a $100-a-day fee if they do not comply with the new requirements.
Smaller stores—those with sales less than $1.5 million or less than 5,000 square feet of retail space—will be exempt from the obligation to redeem CRVs, according to the CalRecycle website.
Retailers must register with CalRecycle starting Jan. 1, 2025, to be notified of upcoming requirements and funding, the agency said.
A bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year added 100-percent fruit and vegetable juice bottles to California’s 1986 Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act.
The state law encourages residents to recycle beverage containers by requiring them to pay a small deposit for eligible bottles—including 5 cents for containers less than 24 ounces, 10 cents for bottles 24 ounces or larger, and 25 cents for wine or distilled spirits in a box, bladder, pouch, or other container.
Fees are refunded to consumers if they recycle the containers at one of the state’s over 1,200 recycling redemption centers.
By adding fruit and vegetable juice containers to the program, the state expects another 200 million containers to be recycled each year, according to a news release by state Sen. Bill Dodd, who sponsored the bill.
