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Advocates claim that the state’s recycling centers could continue to struggle or close if the state’s recycling program isn’t updated soon.
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In 2015, the State of California fell short of its 75 percent recycling goal, and last year, CalRecycle conducted a survey on the state’s recycling efforts, which revealed that California residents sent more material to landfill than the previous year, causing the State of California’s recycling rate to fall below 50 percent.
Since then, hundreds of recycling centers have closed their doors, making it even more difficult for the state to boost its recycling rate. Advocates claim that the state’s recycling centers could continue to struggle or close if the state’s recycling program isn’t updated soon.
The Mercury News has more details:
In a state that prides itself as a global leader in protecting the environment, recycling rates for beverage containers have dropped to their lowest point in almost a decade amid the continued closing of centers that pay for bottles and cans and the fallout from changes to California’s recycling program.
Beyond the environmental concerns, the financial effects are also growing — pinching large supermarket chains and low-income, and even homeless, residents alike.
Beverage container recycling rates in California have fallen below 80 percent for the first time since 2008, according to data recently released by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (known as CalRecycle). In 2016, 79.8 percent of beverage containers were recycled, down from 81 percent in 2015. The beverage container recycling rate had reached a high of 85 percent as recently as 2013.
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