However, in California recyclers have to search for Recycling Centers. There are only 2,100 Recycling Centers in the entire state of California. When we buy bottles or cans, they are marked with a CRV or the California Refund Value. We pre-pay the store a fee on the idea that we would recycle the bottle or can after its use.
This seems like an easy proposition. However, Recycling Centers are few and far between in the valley.
My kids have been saving money by recycling our bottles and cans for the last few years now. While the bottles and cans fill bags which we store in our garage, once every few weeks we go in search of a recycling center so they can transform their saved items into cash. One of my sons is saving money for a computer. While I realize it will be a long time before he has enough money, at least he is learning how to recycle in the process.
On Sunday, we spent much of our day searching and recycling. Our search was for a Recycling Center that was usable. Our first stop was the Recycling Center by Ralphs on Victory in Woodland Hills.
The machines were supposed to be working but apparently the truck didn't pick up the previous load and neither machine was working. So, we drove off to another Recycling Center on Roscoe at Topanga only to discover that site was no longer in business. Finally, the next stop was at Sherman Way and Corbin. There were about 50 people in line with as many bags as we had stuffed in our car.
The idea of standing in the hot sun for two hours was unappealing. We returned to Ralphs on Victory only to have the worker tell us it would be another two hours before anyone could return a single bottle because the machines were not operable. Everyone in line packed up their bottles and left.
Frustrated and sweating by this time, with our car packed with empty bottles and cans, we escaped to the movie theatre for relief. I felt badly that we spent all this gas searching for a Recycling Center. Wasn't this defeating the purpose of recycling? What was I teaching my kids on this trip but that it was a pain to recycle and not worth the effort?
After the movie, we returned to the Recycling Center on Victory for a third time. There were more than a dozen people in line, standing in the heat with many bags of recyclables. We returned home nearly defeated.
A few hours later, the kids said, "Let's try one last time."
We returned to the Recycling Center at Ralphs on Victory in Woodland Hills for a fourth time. There were only a few people standing in line in the heat of the sun. We unloaded our car and got into line. A few moments later, we saw 8th grader
Loren Franklin from Hale Middle School finishing up his recycling. His father was all smiles and said that Loren was saving money for soccer camp and this was a good way to do it. This inspiration encouraged us to remain in line and recycle our way to cash.
Once it was our turn, the machine rejected all of the glass bottles. We don't know why. Most of them were root beer bottles or iced tea bottles. The machine accepted all of the plastic water bottles, of which we had plenty. When the machine was full, it had to be re-set.
This took another five minutes to clean out the machine and re-set it. Everyone behind us looked angry that the wait time had increased again. Finally, after being fixed, the machine accepted our glass bottles as well. This final excursion took an hour of putting bottles into machines. With hundreds of bottles recycled, the boys made a total of $24.80. By the end of the day, we were sweating profusely but the boys were proud of their haul.
During each attempt to recycle throughout the day, we saw local residents either dumping their recycling or leaving the Recycling Center in complete frustration.
We believe if the stores charge you CRV on bottles and cans, they should also provide a Recycling Center. It's only fair to provide a location right on the property to recycle. If they charge it, they should recycle it. If Oregon can encourage recycling by having Recycling Centers everywhere, so can California.
In California, you pre-pay the CRV. In return, you can redeem bottles and cans for 5 cents for containers less than 24 ounces and 10 cents for containers 24 ounces or larger. We can all help the environment by recycling, but the process should be available and easy for everyone.