A man was sentenced to five years in prison for a bottle redemption fraud scheme that bilked California out of millions of dollars, according to state authorities.
A Pennsylvania community bucks the single-stream trend, and fewer Oregon grocery stores redeem beverage containers because more stand-alone centers are opening.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has released its July 2013 quarterly report on its Beverage Container Recycling Fund, and the outlook is not encouraging.
California regulators say retailer CVS hasn’t complied with bottle and can redemption requirements, and they’re seeking to force the company to fork over nearly $3.7 million.
The majority of beverage containers in British Columbia had their deposit values increase from 5 cents to 10 cents at the start of this month, creating more consistency in the provincial redemption program.
The statistic has taken on almost household familiarity: 91% of plastic ever created has not been recycled, and a massive amount has become litter. Jenna Jambeck, a researcher who helped formulate that number, recently spoke about solutions to the pollution problem.
Oregon’s container deposit system achieved an 81% redemption rate last year, significantly higher than the previous full-year figure. The increase comes after the deposit value doubled.
The longest-running container deposit program in the country expects to hit its highest redemption rate in years, shortly after the program doubled its deposit to 10 cents.