One family pocketed $7.6 million by taking cans and bottles from Arizona and recycling them in California. That's fraud, prosecutors say.

Yahoo ^ | July 27, 2023 | Charles R. Davis

[lowbridge]

A California family that earned millions of dollars just by recycling cans and bottles has now been accused of multiple felonies that could lead to years behind bars.

In a felony complaint filed this month, state prosecutors charged eight family members in Riverside County with defrauding the state by importing used bottles and cans from Arizona — some 178 tons in 8 months — and recycling them in California.

The recycling operation earned the family $7.6 million, according to a statement from the office of California's Attorney General, Rob Bonta. Investigators also found a stash of "illegally imported beverage containers" worth another $1 million.

When someone purchases a plastic or aluminum bottle in California, they typically pay an extra 5 to 10 cents in "California Redemption Value," or CRV, which the consumer can get back by returning the items to one of the state's more than 1,200 recycling centers. Arizona has no such program.

"California's recycling program is funded by consumers, and helps protect our environment and our communities," Bonta said. "Those who try to undermine its integrity through criminal operations will be held accountable."

In the criminal complaint, prosecutors accused family members of unlawfully conspiring to commit grand theft and defrauding the California recycling program on a "chronic and ongoing basis" by seeking reimbursement for out-of-state containers and containers that had already been redeemed within California.

Felony grand theft in California is punishable by up to three years in state prison. Redeeming out-of-state containers to the degree the family is accused could increase the sentence by another three years.

[Glad2bnuts]

People make money at it, but I could make more money going to work. IYKWIM. If I had kids at home at the time, they would have had a job going to ball fields and picking up water bottles. For a while, water bottles were redeemable in Oregon, and it didn’t matter the source.

Whatever happened to all of those kids who were told to save the Erf, don’t pollute, and pick up trash? They grew up to be bigger slobs than the Boomers ever thought of being. To say nothing of the beans, they come and use the soccer fields where I police, and they bring candy, water, pop, and kids with clothing on. They leave everything but the kids. Right in the middle of the soccer field, they leave empty and full bottles of water, cig butts, candy wrappers, shoes and jackets. No mind the trash, but they don’t treasure clothing? BITD, mom would kick my butt until I returned the clothing my dad worked so hard to provide.