Good News for Recyclers: Governor Signs AB 1311 Which Provides New Flexibility for Recycling Centers
[Stock photo of recyclables]
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1311 by Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa), a bill that will address the shortage of recycling facilities, especially in rural areas.
For decades, California’s recycling program, in place since 1987, was one of the most successful in the country. Unfortunately drops in commodity prices and the system filling with mostly plastic that has no value, has led to the closing of more than 1,000 recycling centers in California since 2013, many in rural communities.
“Currently there are no certified redemption centers in Humboldt, Trinity, Sierra, or Alpine county,” said Wood. “Given the rural nature of these regions, it has become impossible and impractical for consumers to recover their California Refund Value (CRV) deposits. Something had to be done.”
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act contains specific guidelines and CalRecycle has not made any changes to accommodate challenges faced by rural communities. Working closely with the Humboldt Waste Management Authority (HWMA), Wood drafted AB 1311 to address some of the most significant problems for rural redemption centers, including the lack of flexibility.
“I listened to the HWMA’s challenges and comments from the community, and looked for ways to change the system,” said Wood. “I felt like David fighting Goliath, even when I was only asking for modest changes, like modifying the hours of operation, but eventually we made some progress.”
AB 1311 authorizes CalRecycle to allow certified recycling centers to operate on an alternative schedule, less than the currently required 30 hours per week, if it best serves the needs of the community and the goals of the program. It requires CalRecycle to develop a process that would allow recycling centers to apply for authorization to operate by appointment. It exempts dealers delivering empty beverage containers to a recycling center or processor from the daily load limits and authorizes the use of reverse vending machines and bag drop recycling centers, setting a 3-day standard for customers to receive payment of CRV without requiring full-time staffing.
“This is one piece of a very large puzzle, but for rural California, I believe the changes we were able to accomplish in AB 1311 will address their unique challenges and allow people to redeem their CRV deposits,” said Wood.
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Now I’ve heard it all.
Redemption will require, at certain times, “fronting” the recyclables to the recycling facility on a promise of payment, “within three days”?
Three days? Or else what? Nothing?
What could go wrong?
Okay, I have been a faithful recycler from back in the days when we would take the top and bottoms out of tin cans smash the flat and bag them. But now I am done, done, done! I don’t want to make a career out of recycling. DONE!
Pre-CRV, I was collecting/selling aluminum cans at 10 cents a pound.
I have to wonder if Gavin Newsom and Jim Wood have the time to Recycle. Any investigative reporters out there?
According to this month’s issue of Consumer Reports most of it, except Numbers 1 & 2, end up in Chinese or wherever Landfills, if they will even accept it!!!
HUH? Isn’t aluminum getting pricey? I was hoping to be the biggest hoarder of aliminium!
It’s about time!
MORE has to be done… the buy back (CRV) does not include plastic milk containers… did the milk lobby squash this years ago..?
Plastics of ALL kinds (without the recycle triangle logo) need to be accepted for recycling IF we’re going to be serious about this
Just because it has recycling logo does not mean it can even be recycled. It has to have a use and mostly it doesn’t.
So I no longer need to dispose of my beer cans into the front yard of my favorite politician?
Better just to eliminate CRVs altogether. The system can’t be made rational. Glass is glass, no matter what it contained. Aluminum is aluminum, whether it contained sardines or beer.
This is bullshit all the way around and they know it! It’s like trying to set a broken bone with a friggin bandaid. Follow Oregon’s cue on recycling, or do not charge the curb tax! Period!
I’m not clear on what CRV is. I live in Oregon now. The bottle bill with the 10 cent deposit is handy. Especially now that there are bottle drop “stores” and we don’t have to count on the regular stores with their crappy return machines.
https://www.bottledropcenters.com/
As for recycling. Glass, all glass (that doesn’t have that .10 deposit) can be taken to a glass recycling site in town. All aluminum (again besides the .10 ones) can go into the recycling, along with #’s 1 and 2 plastics, paper, cardboard, etc.
I live in town and so have the three bins, one for actual garbage (the smallest one), one for recycling (except glass), and another for composts (including everything from coffee grounds, etc. to small tree limbs), the largest one, with the recycling bin not much smaller.
We can’t (where I live) recycle any plastic that doesn’t have a neck (1 and 2). I try to avoid any of those things I can’t recycle, though it is unavoidable sometimes. I hate those clam shells for produce and bakery goods.
Plastic and glass both need to be designed from the start with the intent it will be recycled- that it has a value to be recycled. And government gets its regulations in a line so that it does require parts that aren’t easily recyclable like security caps or screw cap rings while demanding it be recycled. Until and unless manufacturers agree (or are forced to agree) on packaging that is totally recyclable AND there is a reasonably convenient way to get it recycled, it will end up in landfills.
Monte Testaccio is an artificial mountain in Rome that was created by dumping broken pottery from millennia ago. This is not a new issue nor even an issue created by plastic.