Vigilant consumers who make a habit of studying their sales receipts may have recently noticed a few extra pennies tacked on to the prices of their Snapple, Arrowhead or Frappuccino bottles.
It's not a cashier's mistake. It's the California redemption value, or CRV, a refundable deposit that Californians have been paying for years on beer, soft-drink and wine-cooler containers, whether they realized it or not.
Now, because of legislation that took effect Jan. 1, that deposit--redeemable at any certified recycling center--is being collected on nearly all beverage containers, including cans and bottles of water, fruit juice, sports drinks, iced tea and iced coffee.
The idea is to give California consumers an added incentive to recycle and to boost the state's bottle recycling rate, which has sagged in recent years.
So far, the responses of most consumers have ranged from clueless to indifferent--but industry workers say it's far too early to gauge the law's impact.
"It's slowly beginning to pick up, [but] it really hasn't hit," said Al Zorn, coordinator at the Burbank Recycling Center. "We put out mailers and fliers. . . . We're excited about it, but it's going to be slow."
Recycling rules can be so jumbled and esoteric that consumers can lose sight of basic distinctions such as what's redeemable, what's simply recyclable and what's just plain garbage. Policymakers hope that by adding a CRV to nearly all drink containers and thus grouping more beverages in a single category, the new measure will simplify what can be a mystifying process.
Indeed, many consumers have mistakenly assumed that containers that were previously nonredeemable, such as Gatorade bottles, were also non-recyclable. "If people don't see that CRV label, they think it may not be recyclable and it ends up in the trash," said Kent Stoddard of Waste Management, California's largest curbside recycling company.
The fact is, all glass, plastic, aluminum and bimetal drink containers are recyclable. Now, nearly all of them also qualify for paybacks.
Here's how it works: Consumers pay a nominal deposit at the checkout stand on all CRV drink containers--2 1/2 cents for smaller containers, a nickel for those 24 ounces or larger. They can then cash in their empties at any recycling center for a refund, or donate them to curbside collection programs.
Milk, Wine, Liquor Aren't Included
