Californians trashing recyclable bottles 

Jane Kay / SF Chronicle 25may01

[ AP story below ]

Californians are not taking advantage of a new law that adds fruit drink, iced tea and bottled water containers to the bottle redemption program, effectively bringing down the state's recycling rate.

While Californians recycled more bottles and cans of beer and soda last year than the year before, they tossed out most of the other kinds of containers, state officials warn in a new $10 million ad campaign.

Because of the debut of the new drinks -- trendy water and sports drinks and bottled iced coffees and teas -- the state's beverage container recycling rate dropped from 74 percent in 1999 to 61 percent in 2000, said a report released yesterday by the state Department of Conservation.

"It's a case of educating the public that these products are not only recyclable, but they're also redeemable for a refund value. We want people to find a recycling bin, instead of the trash, when they're done with their drinks," said Mark Oldfield, a spokesman for the Department of Conservation.

The ad campaign alerts the public that it shouldn't toss out mineral water, Gatorade and Snapple bottles. In some TV spots, a laconic plastic bottle turns into a lifeguard buoy, and a masochistic can in a kick-the-can game transforms into a baseball bat.

When the "bottle bill" passed in 1986, it offered reimbursement for returns of beer, soda pop and sparkling drinks in glass, aluminum and clear plastic containers. By 2000, there were 13.1 billion containers in circulation.

The 2000 law put a new redemption value on fruit drink, tea, coffee and water containers. There were 3.4 billion of those containers, bringing the number in the program to 16.5 billion. Still left out of the payment program are whiskey and wine bottles and plastic milk jugs, yet they are also recycled.

In 2000, 10 billion containers were recycled -- up from 9.7 billion in 1999 -- leaving 6.5 billion going to landfills.

The reuse market is so healthy that every bit of aluminum, glass and plastic is snapped up by a manufacturer or a reprocessor, said Bill Armstrong, branch manager of market research with the Division of Recycling. Aluminum has the best market and gets the highest price. "All of the cans recovered turn into new cans," he said. As for glass, "The bottle manufacturers and fiberglass insulation manufacturers can't get enough of the stuff."

The plastic bottles get reused, he said. "Some go to the East Coast for rug manufacturing. Others recycle plastic into new bottles. Some plastic goes overseas, primarily turned into fiber, and comes back to the United States incorporated in lining in jackets, fabrics and other products," Armstrong said.

Also driving recycling is a state law that requires every jurisdiction to divert 50 percent of its waste from landfills by 2000. The state doesn't yet know which ones have met that deadline, but it estimates that statewide about 42 percent of waste, including beverage containers, is recycled.

Abysmal recycling rates prompt 'edgy' $10 million campaign 

Jennifer Kerr / AP 24may01

Californians are tossing more beer bottles and soda cans into the trash than they did a decade ago, instead of recycling them, according to a new state study.

And most of those trendy water, sports drink, coffee and iced-tea bottles that were just added to the state's recycling law are being discarded rather than recycled, the study found.

To try to reverse the downward trend and convince Californians again that recycling is cool, the state's recycling agency is launching a $10 million campaign that includes television ads showing a lowly plastic water bottle reborn as an orange buoy for a curvaceous female lifeguard.

"We wanted to do something that was edgy, something that would get people to pay attention and at the same time something that was creative and just a bit funny," said Mark Oldfield, spokesman for the state Department of Conservation.

The department is releasing new recycling figures Thursday that are lower than expected, even considering the addition of a whole new group of glass and plastic bottles to the state's 14-year-old recycling program.

The overall recycling rate dropped from 74 percent in 1999 to 61 percent in 2000, which meant that Californians recycled 10.2 billion beverage containers and threw away six billion. Those unrecycled cans and bottles would circle the world nearly seven times, if put end-to-end, the department said.

That 2000 rate was well below the law's goal of 80 percent and below figures that rose as high as 82 percent in 1992.

The department anticipated a drop in rates with the expansion of the recycling program last year to include 3.4 billion more bottles that people weren't used to collecting and turning in. The law expanding the program therefore included the $10 million for an advertising and education program.

However, officials did not expect such a large decrease.

"We're Californians. We're supposed to know more about recycling," says department Director Darryl Young.

Even recycling-popular aluminum cans, which hit a high of 85 percent in 1991 and 1992, dropped to 76 percent.

State officials say they don't really know why recycling is down. They suspect the economy plays a part; recycling rates were highest during the recession of the early 1990s and dropped as good times returned.

They also suspect Californian's mobile lifestyle is a major factor. People who constantly carry around water or iced-tea drinks don't always look for or find a recycling bin when the bottle or can is empty.

The television and radio ads, in English and Spanish, aimed at reversing the trend start Monday in major cities around the state.

Other TV ads show an aluminum can being kicked around, but then being transformed into a homer-hitting baseball bat and a bottle left under a couch at a party reincarnated as the glitter on a disco ball.

The energy crisis is also providing new incentive to recycle. Making a can from recycled aluminum uses 95 percent less energy than making a new one.

One recycled aluminum can could save enough energy to power a television for almost three hours, said Oldfield.

He noted that 2.5 billion aluminum cans were discarded rather than recycled last year "and that's a lot of TVs, toasters and microwaves."