About 90 new sites for people to recycle empty drink containers will be added to the Bay Area after several counties received grants from the state’s recycling and waste management agency, officials said this week.
The grants will fund some 250 new recycling sites across 30 California counties in total, officials said.
The director of CalRecycle, Zoe Heller, told the Bay Area News Group that the department had been hearing from Bay Area residents and people throughout the state that there was a need for more opportunities and sites for people to bring their beverage containers and redeem them for nickels and dimes.
Alameda, Sacramento and San Mateo counties will have three different disposal methods for recyclable beverage containers — mobile, bag drop and a reverse vending machine. The counties of Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Marin and Monterey received grants to implement reverse vending machines. Sonoma County will also be implementing bag drop and reverse vending machine systems.
A news release from CalRecycle announced that $70 million in Beverage Container Redemption Innovation Grants would be used to set up the sites in 30 counties across the state of California.
Heller said that a reverse vending machine works similarly to a traditional vending machine; people can put their bottles and cans in a slot and get cash for those recyclables.
Mobile collection of drink containers uses a truck that moves throughout different neighborhoods, notifying residents when the vehicle parks nearby so that they can bring their bottles and cans. Bag drop sites will allow people to bring bags of drink containers to specific locations. After they are weighed and counted, people can receive some money for their recyclables. These sites are expected to open next year.
Acceptable drink containers include soda cans and water bottles, but the list was recently expanded to include bottles of wine and distilled spirits and large juice containers, Heller said.
The grant program was meant to provide for communities that needed more sites for people to redeem their empty bottles and cans for nickels and dimes. Heller said the program started in the 1980s with the goal of keeping bottles and cans from littering waterways and streets.
She added that she hopes to see recycling rates increase and more beverage containers collected statewide.
SaveMart and Smart and Final each received $2 million for reverse vending machines in 19 counties. The department also stated that modernized recycling sites would be coming to Butte, Imperial, Lassen, Mendocino and Merced counties.
