Home California Dodd’s Wine, Spirits Bottle Recycling Bill Clears Hurdle

Dodd’s Wine, Spirits Bottle Recycling Bill Clears Hurdle

Press Release

by ECT
Senator Bill Dodd

SACRAMENTO – Legislation has advanced from Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, D-San Diego, and Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, to add wine and distilled spirits bottles to California’s recycling program.

“California can increase the recycling rates of millions of bottles that would otherwise wind up in our landfills or be illegally discarded,” said Sen. Dodd. “This is a common sense bill that benefits our environment and consumers. I look forward to seeing it pass the full Assembly and be signed by Gov. Newsom.”

The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, established in 1986, encourages consumers to recycle beverage containers by requiring them to pay a deposit for eligible bottles. According to a 2019 report, curbside programs received approximately $172 million from the so-called Bottle Bill in 2017, including $15 million that is annually provided from the Beverage Container Recycling Fund.

Although the program includes beer, it does not include wine or spirits. It is estimated that California generates more than 500 million wine and spirits bottles each year, with less than 30% being recycled and over 300 million wine and spirits bottles going into landfills. Under Senate Bill 1013, wine and spirits bottles would be added to the program, leading to more recycling, increased business for recycling centers and reduced processing costs. The expansion would also cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide while reducing litter of wine and spirits containers, a visible and dangerous component of urban litter pollution.

SB1013 is supported by a number of groups including Californians Against Waste, Heal the Bay, California Association of Local Conservation Corps, Monterey Regional Waste Management District, National Stewardship Action Council, Northern California Recycling Association, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, The 5 Gyres Institute, the Plastic Pollution Coalition and Zero Waste USA. It has no formal opposition.

It passed the Assembly Natural Resources committee Monday with unanimous, bipartisan support.

Senator Bill Dodd represents the 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Solano, Yolo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. You can learn more about the district and Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd

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1 comment

Rod Flohr Jun 30, 2022 - 9:13 am

This is nice, I guess. But since the Chinese shut down plastic recycling imports, most of the for-profit recycling centers have shut down. Super markets and other sellers who collect the deposit are supposed to take the cans and bottles back. They don’t though, and there is no enforcement. So there is no real way for most people to collect their “deposit” refund. Because of this, there is not much financial incentive for people to recycle their cans and bottles. They can put them in the blue bin if they are inclined to recycle, but then the deposit money goes to the garbage collection company or the city. So the deposit is not so much an incentive as a subsidy we pay for curbside recycling.

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