CalRecycle: Investigate and penalize retailers failing to return deposits on bottles and cans

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Subject: FW: Tell CalRecycle to Crack Down on Corporate Free Riders

Hi friend,

Last year California lost 13 billion bottles and cans to the environment and landfills. We can address this by ensuring retailers are refunding deposits on bottles and cans across the state. I just wrote to CalRecycle to urge them to take action. You can take action here. https://action.storyofstuff.org/letter/calrecycle-crack-down-corporate-free-riders/?source=taf

Optional: Add a short note to the message

Dear Ms. Wagoner -- Director of Calrecycle,

The California bottle bill has diverted billions of containers from landfills and the environment but it’s no longer fit for purpose. It’s unacceptable that 71% of California’s “convenience zones” no longer have a point of redemption – there are entire counties virtually without redemption options! The entire convenience zone structure was designed to ensure that retailers would take back bottles and cans should there be no recycling center – but the system isn’t working.

A recent survey by the Story of Stuff Project showed that 48% of the retailers that CalRecycle’s website claims should redeem deposits are failing to do so; other surveys have shown similar results. While bottle bills were conceived of as a producer responsibility policy, California’s program is being funded by consumers, many of whom have no reasonable option to redeem their bottles and cans. It’s disheartening that CalRecycle’s reserves have grown so substantially as a result.

We have the infrastructure to ensure we distribute bottles and cans far and wide, that same infrastructure should be available to retrieve them. I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that retailers are playing their part in the system.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best wishes,
Friend

The California bottle bill, which adds a deposit on bottles and cans to incentivize recycling – is one of the state’s bedrock environmental laws, that’s kept billions of plastic bottles from polluting frontline communities and our environment. But with each passing year, it slumps deeper into crisis.

The legislation was designed to ensure companies – like beverage manufacturers and retailers selling drinks – play their part in ensuring we reduce pollution. The reality however is that the system is being financed by Californians who oftentimes are paying a deposit without any real prospect of being able to retrieve it.

Over the last months, our Community has helped to reveal a number of the system’s key failures:

Over two-thirds of California’s “convenience zones” that are designed to have at least one point of return have nowhere to return bottles and cans.
48% of retailers mandated to take back bottles and cans are refusing to do so.
The decline in bottles and cans being returned has led to a half-billion-dollar surplus in CalRecycle’s reserves.
This has led to over thirteen billion bottles and cans being lost to the system last year alone.

California frequently cites itself as a leader on plastics reduction measures, but the state’s bottle bill is hitting rock bottom. CalRecycle is the state agency that oversees the statewide bottle bill. Tell CalRecycle to crack down on non-compliant retailers to ensure the program is fit for purpose!

P.S. If you’ve tried to redeem deposits on bottles and cans, please add a note to personalize the letter – your experience helps to shine a light on real-world difficulties facing Californians trying to participate in the bottle bill.

See our newly released report California's Bottle Bill: The Path to Redemption

Retailers: Take Back Your Bottles and Cans

CalRecycle: Investigate and penalize retailers failing to return deposits on bottles and cans

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