Recycling of Bottles, Cans Up 50% After Refund Hike : Conservation: Public responds in record numbers to the new two-for-a-nickel payoff.

Beer bottles and soft drink cans clogging the state’s landfills and littering the state’s beaches and roadsides are being tossed into recycling bins at record rates.

The volume of beverage containers being recycled instead of being tossed into garbage dumps has increased 50%, to more than 249,000 tons, over the same period a year ago, according to preliminary state figures for the first six months of 1990 obtained by The Times.

“It represents the largest growth we’ve seen since the inception of the program in 1987,” said Ralph Chandler, who oversees recycling operations for the state Department of Conservation. The program is designed to ease the strain on the state’s bulging landfills, as well as reduce litter.

State officials, waste haulers and environmentalists say that the rise is partly the result of higher refunds--every two beverage containers are now worth a nickel--and suggests that consumers are increasingly incorporating recycling into their lifestyles.

“We sense a groundswell of public support for recycling. . . . It’s like the dam has burst after years and years of trying to get these programs,” said Kent Stoddard, a Sacramento lobbyist for Waste Management Inc. “And now it’s mainstream.”

Pat Macht, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation, agreed, saying the statistics demonstrate that “the recycling ethic has arrived in California.”

Millions of consumers have joined the recycling effort. Some utilize the growing number of city-sponsored curbside programs. Others haul bottles and cans to neighborhood recycling centers. Still others pop containers into “reverse vending machines” to collect their refund.

At UC Irvine’s recycling center, materials brought in have increased by 50% in the past year, said director Henry Wieler. The center draws not only UCI students and faculty, but people and businesses from throughout Orange County.

“It is a very noticeable increase,” he said. “And I see no sign of it being over yet. We get more and more phone calls from businesses in the area that want to recycle.”

Macht said that for the first six months of the year, 249,347 tons of beverage containers were recycled statewide, compared to 165,856 tons for the same period last year. The figures are not broken down for cities or counties.

According to the state, the amount of recycled plastic containers collected in the first six months of 1990 skyrocketed 242%, to 4,184 tons; glass bottles increased 69%, to 179,834 tons, and aluminum cans went up 13%, to 65,329 tons.

The state also reported that 72% of all beverage containers eligible for redemption are being recycled--up from 62% in the first half of 1989.

Jan Goss, Orange County’s recycling manager, said Friday that she wasn’t surprised by the dramatic jump in recycling because people are pushing to conserve all resources.

“It’s a big increase, but there’s a lot of concern and interest in recycling. And when you get paid for it, maybe it’s worth doing for more people,” she said.

Providing evidence of the new recycling boom in Orange County, an analysis of garbage collected in Fullerton last month showed very few cans and bottles, Goss said.

“A good portion of the beverage containers are being recycled,” she said. “They haven’t found a lot of aluminum cans in the waste stream.”

The reason most often cited for the recycling surge is the law that took effect Jan. 1 boosting the refund value of bottles and cans. The refund applies to containers for beer, soft drinks, carbonated mineral water and wine coolers.

As a result, the amount the state has paid in refunds has nearly tripled so far this year, to $94.3 million, according to the Department of Conservation.

Richard Graff, assistant general manager of ENVIPCO, the Pleasanton-based company that created and now operates the reverse-vending machines found at many supermarkets, said the volume of aluminum cans being recycled at the company’s machines has soared since January. “It’s mostly the rise in the redemption value,” he said. “When it was a penny, things were very, very flat and redemption was low.”

Graff said that the amount of plastic being recycled has increased fivefold. The company operates about 1,600 machines at 525 locations throughout California, including Vons, Lucky and some Alpha Beta and Boys markets in Southern California.

Lee Johnson, vice president of Corona-based 20/20 Recycle Centers, which operates about 300 locations in California, said that public awareness of environmental issues stemming from Earth Day last April has contributed to the sharp increase in recycling. “We’ve seen a surge that, in our opinion, goes beyond the increase in the value.”

Other factors cited are the enactment last year of a law requiring cities to reduce waste 25% by 1995 and 50% by the end of the century, the heightened concern about the environment, and TV ads, featuring actors Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, on recycling.

In addition, the number of curbside recycling programs--in which materials are separated and picked up at homes--has doubled from about 100 a year ago to 209. The state estimates that there are now 49 curbside programs being phased into operation in Los Angeles County, seven in Orange County, 17 in San Diego County and eight in Ventura County.

Orange County cities with curbside programs are Irvine, Laguna Beach, Brea, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, La Habra and Orange.

In Orange County, a survey last November showed that 18% of the county’s total waste, or 75,755 tons of materials per month, was being recycled. That includes cans, newspapers, scrap metal and other recyclables.

Times staff writers Jeffrey L. Rabin in Los Angeles and Marla Cone in Orange County contributed to this story.