Posted on 10/07/2012 1:56:25 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Just over 8.5 billion recyclable cans were sold in California last year. The number redeemed for a nickel under California's recycling law: 8.3 billion.
That's a return rate of nearly 100%.
That kind of success isn't just impressive, it's unbelievable. But the recycling rate for certain plastic containers was even higher: 104%.
California's generous recycling redemption program has led to rampant fraud. Crafty entrepreneurs are driving semi-trailers full of cans from Nevada or Arizona, which don't have deposit laws, across the border and transforming their cargo into truckfuls of nickels. In addition, recyclers inside the state are claiming redemptions for the same containers several times over, or for containers that never existed.
The illicit trade is draining the state's $1.1-billion recycling fund. Government officials recently estimated the fraud at $40 million a year, and an industry expert said it could exceed $200 million. It's one reason the strapped fund paid out $100 million more in expenses last year than it took in from deposits and other sources.
"The law says California has to make it easy to recycle … so anyone with a devious mind, it's so easy, they can just go right in," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Chapman, who has investigated fraud rings in recent months.
Under the state's 25-year-old recycling law, California charges consumers a deposit on most beverage containers sold within its borders. Anyone who brings empty containers back to one of about 2,300 privately run recycling centers can collect 5 cents for most cans and bottles and 10 cents for larger containers.
Only products sold in California are eligible. But a can is a can — and many recycling centers in California aren't that interested in where they come from.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
In California, four hundred dollars.
I don’t recycle anything.......
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I did.
The garbage guys became such jack-azz garbage Nazis that I finally quit.
They would pick through throwing stuff into the yard that they didn’t like.
The recycle game got so bad that I started feeling like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.
Suckers!
Thanks for all the good articles you post. :)
I don’t recycle anything.......I recycle. I throw everything in the garbage can, then the homeless come around on pick-up night, sort it and take what they want and never leave a mess.
BTW, recyclying glass is another joke. I replaced some aluminum framed windows and called a few recyclers about taking the glass seperate from the aluminum...FREE. No one would take it, they ONLY take glass bottles with redemption value.
I am all for recycling programs if they’re done well. I have relatives in southern Germany who recycle as much as they can.... why? Because the regular household trash is billed for removal by weight, their trash receptacle actually has a built in scale. Makes sense to me... no refuse tax, only a fee for use.
Sigh... tax the rat farms.
When I lived on base at Travis AFB I ignored the recycling rules and got a letter from base commander. Apparently one of the garbage nazi’s (a local civilian contractor) ratted me out for having beer bottles mixed in my trash. He heard them rattling in the bin and dug around and found them. I refused to use that little pos plastic bin, instead I wrapped each wine (we lived close to Napa) and beer bottle in newspaper and continued to use the big bin. Never got caught again.
Because it is not profitable. It costs the taxpayers a lot of money to recycle. Of course, it also creates plenty of government union jobs, which help funnel money to get Democrats elected.
“.....in order to boost EU-imposed recycling targets. ....”
and should we continue on this road to Leftist Hell it would be to boost the UN-imposed recycling targets.
All this Leftist crap has to be stopped cold.
It gets wheeled out to the curb when full and/or once a week and trashmen dump it all in their truck and they sort it out at their facility.
Garbage and non-recyclables go in a trashbag and are picked up and disposed of separately. Two trash pickups a week are now down to one and could be every two weeks. Trash company makes money from the recyclables and that keeps the rates down.
It works.
We have a similar system here where I live. We don’t have to separate anything - we just throw all recyclables into a 50gal wheeled bin that is provided to each house in addition to the wheeled trash container. The recyclables are sorted by hand when the pick up trucks get to the waste facility. It provides unskilled jobs and more than pays for itself. The fact that it is such a simple system means that compliance is very high. It’s a win / win. The more simple the system, the better the results.
Privatizing the CA system would fix it all. Gov’t attempting to make a share of the profits has a way of screwing everything up.
Where ever the heck here is.
I remember reading probably 20 years ago a paper published in Science that did a energy usage study on recycling. The paper's conclusion was that recycling was a energy hog!
All the reprocessing necessary to make recycled material usable as basic product feeds (e.g., recover the metal, the glass, etc) used significantly more energy then if you just made a new product and sometimes even required the introduction of new material. (So no net material savings!)
I remember my late (well wasn't late then!) mother-in-law a good FDR democrat was horrified by my statements on recycling. She was a wonderful and dear person but bought into every environmental fad hook-line-and-sinker that came down the road. I was on this issue her son-in-law the antisocial cranky curmudgeon conservative ( But who understood thermodynamics!). Who was just being that way because democrats were advocating it!
I don't know how widespread the use of those devices is but even in states without return deposit systems aluminum cans are reported to have about a 90% rate of recycling.
So, here's the fraud ~ the idea that California through the misuse of state authority can make a significant impact in recycling aluminum cans.
SEE: >http://www.walkermagnet.com/separation-eddy-current-separators.htm
Me neither. But then I don't have much to recycle.
Kalifornia charges sales tax (7.75 % or more) and it is not redeemable.
How much do you pay? What does your local government pay? I smell a rat. Recycling is rarely profitable and usually requires coercion or subsidies or extra fees/taxes.
One article I read on trash and refuse in India said there is basically no garbage or trash in India because someone down the line can always use whatever it is ~ intense grinding poverty insures that. Then, too, there are 70 million people who constitute a relatively formal jot which has as its job the removal and reprocessing of garbage, trash and other waste materials from all sources.
America is truly a fortunate land ~ we have to think about dealing with trash. Others don't.
I actually don’t consider this recycling. Curbside recycling is stupid and designed for economic illiterates to this they are helping.
But, I actually support bottle deposit programs. I lived in Michigan for 45 years then moved to Maryland. In MD, everyone is all exercised about the environment, yet there are cans and bottles all over the roadways. In MI, the cans have value and are either not tossed, or quickly picked up. Plus, a bottle drive is a great way for Boy Scouts and other youth groups to make money.
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