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

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

The volume of recycled beverage containers 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 and suggests that consumers are increasingly incorporating recycling into their everyday 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.

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

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 value, previously a penny per container, was raised to a nickel for two containers or for a single container larger than 24 ounces. 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.”

Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), who wrote the 1986 legislation that established the penny refund, hailed the higher refunds as “the major reason that (recycling) rates are shooting through the roof.” He called beverage containers “the cash crop of recycling.”

Other factors cited are the enactment last year of a law requiring cities to reduce waste 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, six in Orange County, 17 in San Diego County and eight in Ventura County.

Beverage containers--while they make up only about 2% of the state’s 42 million tons of waste--have become an important symbol in the recycling effort.

For two decades, the focus of recycling advocates was to establish a container refund program. Numerous efforts to enact a bottle bill, including a statewide initiative, had failed in the face of strong industry opposition. Finally, in 1986, the Margolin bill became law after a compromise was reached on a lower refund value.

Environmentalists have since pushed to broaden the scope of the law. They were able last year to boost the refund value, but other efforts have failed.

For example, in a setback for the recycling movement, the Senate Natural Resources Committee last Wednesday rejected a new Margolin bill that would have also allowed wine and liquor bottles to be recycled. The measure had passed in the Assembly.

Margolin argued that “as a matter of equity” wine and liquor bottles should be part of the state recycling program. But the wine industry countered that all recyclable products--not just beverage containers--should be included in a much more comprehensive state recycling program.

Glass manufacturers also opposed the bill, complaining that the amount of glass now being collected exceeds the industry’s ability to recycle it.

Margolin labeled the defeat as only a temporary setback and vowed to revive his proposal next year.

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.

Lists of recycling centers outside the central Los Angeles city area may be found in appropriate zoned editions of The Times today.

Lists of centers in central Los Angeles will begin appearing Tuesday on B2, the Metro Digest page.

A list of Glendale and Northeast Los Angeles centers will appear in the Glendale zoned section on Thursday.

Redemption Containers Recycled (in Tons) The amount of recycling through state-certified centers increased in California during the firstsix months of 1990.

Type of First six First six Material months of 1989 months of 1990 % change Aluminum 58,046 65,329 +13% Glass 106,587 179,834 +69% Plastic 1,223 4,184 +242% All Materials 165,856 249,347 +50%

Source: state Department of Conservation