Posted on 07/27/2023 10:40:15 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So, the entire deposit/refund system is predicated on revenue and not on environmental stewardship? Huh.
It's not commerce. It's reclaimng the deposit you paid in the first place. The can isn't necessarily worth 5c, that's just the deposit you put on it.
If you put a deposit down on an item, say to buy. or if you are renting something, you must go back to the place you rented it from in order to reclaim your deposit. You can't return a U-Haul to a Ryder place and demand your deposit back, even if Ryder rents exactly the same kind of truck.
Nevada charges a ‘deposit’——BUT HAS NO LOCATIONS FOR RETURNING SUCH CONTAINERS, IIRC.
Local Boy Scouts worked hard to collect from all of us-—then STOPPED because they couldn’t get them redeemed.
Bingo!
I see it quite a bit. They’ll also sell the water for a dime a bottle.
IF the state involved DOES NOT provide recycling places, then Consumers are being ripped off.
Take it up with Arizona. California greenies should be happy they are helping Arizona get rid of it's recyclables.
Cuck you, Falifornia.
In Michigan, the deposit is ten cents. In CA, it's five cents for bottles under 24 oz, and ten cents for bottles over 24 oz (i.e. 2 liter bottles.)
Typical soda can is 16 oz, which is a nickel deposit.
To get $7.5 million, you'd have to return 150 million 16 oz cans.
How do you return that many cans? Here in Michigan you go to a store that has bottle return machines, and you stuff the cans into the machine one at a time. At one can per second, that's 3600 cans per hour, or almost 42,000 labor hours to return that many cans.
How could you tell they were from Arizona? Don’t most cans and bottles have the various State deposit amounts?
In my state (Michigan) it is not about recycling but about keeping them from becoming litter.
You put down a deposit when you buy it and when you turn it in rather then tossing it into a river you get your money back.
Or who ever finds and polices up your trash will get it when they bring it in.
It actually does work because people do pick up any cans and bottles they find and turn them in.
However bringing in bottles and cans from another state is not going to prevent litter here. That is that other states problem.
Less litter is a good thing.
POLLUTING THE LANDFILLS:
TRY THESE NUMBERS:
DISPOSABLE DIAPERS:
LOCAL “DIAPER BANK” is PLEADING for more donations.
They claim a baby can use 12 diapers every 24 hours.
SOOOOOOOO—12/day X 365 days==4380 disposable diapers a year.
Baby in diapers for 2 years===8760 disposable diapers
Baby in Diapers for 3 years ===13,140 disposable diapers in local landfill.
Then do that number times the number of new babies every year====??????????
WE HAVE A LANDFILL PROBLEM FROM DISPOSABLE DIAPERS.
For those who have been questioning why what these folks did is criminal, the answer is in the statement from the California Attorney General:
The California Beverage Container Recycling Program is administered by CalRecycle. The program’s California Redemption Value (CRV) fee incentivizes recycling at privately-owned centers with a 5- or 10-cent return on eligible beverage containers. California consumers subsidize the CRV program every time they purchase CRV-eligible bottles and cans in the state.
Only material from California is eligible for redemption under this program.
In October 2022, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into a group of recycling centers in Riverside County operated by the suspects. The investigation found that over the course of eight months, the suspects smuggled 178 tons of aluminum cans and plastic bottles from Arizona and delivered them to undocumented lots in Riverside County. The suspects then unlawfully redeemed $7.6 million in CRV funds. Arizona does not have a recycling program that provides redemption value for bottles and cans.
in southwest Virginia the fine folks down there buy cases of soda with their food stamps, then turn around and sell them to convenience store owners for 1/2 price.
Like my fellow Freepers, I don’t see a problem with that.
There is (Santa Cruz County) a maximum of 100# per day (cans)
specifically, to avoid import of cans from out-of-state.
Something ain’t right.
“It’s all about saving the planet right?”
I guess they are allowed to save all of the planet—except Arizona!
;-)
The recycler also logs your driver’s license when they hand over the refund/redemption.
The purpose of this whole scheme is supposedly to keep bottles and cans out of litter, trash, etc. by having them returns for recycling. Here is how it works.
Say you buy a can of soda for $1. You have to pay the dollar, plus sales tax if applicable, plus a fixed deposit of, say, 5c. The merchant sends 4c to the state, and keeps a penny as the allowable "handling fee".
Then, after you drink your soda (or dump it out, or put a Mentos in it) you bring the container to a redemption center. The redemption center gives you your five cents, bundles the containers, and gives them to the recycling operation who gives the redeption center say 7 1/2 cents per container, the difference is the redemption center profit.
The recycling center cleans the bottles, and returns them, or the materials, to the manaufacturer. The state gives the recycler the nickel back, and the recycling center makes the rest of it's money by selling the bottles or materials. In Maine the recycling cenetr is supported in part by grants. I don't know if they are profitable on their own. My guess is they are run by Democrats, so probably not.
Since the are more deposits paid than containers redeemed, the state accumulates a large fund representing deposits unredeemed containers, tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for a large state like Cailifornia.
My thoughts exactly.......
Good question! I would hope California bureaucrats are asking the same question.
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