California has announced nearly $70 million in grant awards to help fund innovative recycling sites around the state, including in San Diego County.
Why it matters
The grant money will support novel recycling businesses, including mobile recycling centers that move to different locations throughout the week, bag-drop sites and recycling machines in grocery stores. This comes as recycling centers around the state have been shuttering for years.
By the numbers
The grant awards will help fund more than 250 new recycling locations around the state, with 20 planned in San Diego County.
Recycling advocates hope this will help reverse a troubling trend. Over the last decade, the number of recycling centers statewide dropped by more than half, according to data from CalRecycle. There are currently fewer than 1,300 recycling centers statewide.
When consumers can’t recycle their bottles and cans, they don’t get back the five- or 10-cent deposits they’re charged when buying a beverage. Over time, that money adds up. At last count, the state’s unclaimed deposit fund had reached nearly $820 million, according to CalRecycle.
Closer look
KPBS recently reported on the alarming decline in recycling centers and the staggering amount of money piling up in the state's beverage container recycling fund.
The closure of these centers has both environmental and economic consequences.
Fewer recycling centers means more cans and bottles in landfills, along roadways and on beaches. Plus, many people on the bottom rung of the economic ladder need the money they get from bottle returns. Fewer recycling locations means fewer opportunities to get back those nickels and dimes.
“For many years, we were saying there were redemption deserts all throughout the state and that the infrastructure needed to be rebuilt, replaced," said Susan Collins, president of the Container Recycling Institute.
Collins said the recent grant awards are a good start to combating this problem. And she notes that there are more rounds of grant funding on the way.
“It won't completely fill the void," she said. "It's a really good start though.”
