More Beverages Are Added to Bottle, Can Recycling Plan

By JENIFER WARREN

Dec. 29, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SACRAMENTO —

When you haul your body off the stair climber come New Year’s Day, don’t toss out the Gatorade bottle. Under a new law, it will be worth 2.5 cents at your local recycling center.

But that empty magnum of Moet on the coffee table? Sorry; that one won’t reap you a payback.

Launched in 1987, California’s bottle and can recycling program expands beginning Saturday, placing a fresh assortment of beverages under the state’s deposit and refund rules.

Previously limited to cans and bottles of beer, soda and wine coolers, the law now covers most prepackaged, ready-to-drink beverages in aluminum, glass and plastic containers, from fruit juices to Evian, smoothies and flavored iced coffees and teas.

The change will add 2 billion containers to the 13 billion already subject to the law each year--and add to the check stand price of your Snapple or Sobe. But some notable exceptions remain.

Largely because of legislative politics, containers of milk, wine and liquor are exempt. Also excluded are infant formula, medical products and those little cardboard juice boxes popular among school age children.

In recent weeks, makers of a few other products have tried to get their beverages out from under the measure.

Among them are the Florida-based manufacturers of Slim-Fast, who contend that their canned drinks are not actually a beverage but “a fortified meal replacement.”

In a letter to the state Department of Conservation, which oversees the recycling program, Slim-Fast Foods Co. Vice President Robin Rosenberg argues that the diet drink provides “the essential vitamins and nutrients an adult body needs,” just like infant formula does for babies. Since formula is exempt, Slim-Fast should be too, Rosenberg reasons.

Kraft Foods, maker of Capri Sun juice drink pouches, raised a stink as well. In response, three Central Valley legislators wrote a letter to Gov. Gray Davis, warning that adding a deposit to the price of Capri Suns could have a devastating impact on a Kraft plant that employs 240 people in Fresno.

“We don’t believe it was ever the intention of the Legislature to include this California product in the ‘bottle and aluminum can’ recycling expansion,” said the Dec. 16 letter from Democratic state Assembly members Sarah Reyes, Mike Machado and Dennis Cardoza.

Turns out Kraft had nothing to fear. State officials say it was never their intention to include Capri Suns. Their unique layered construction--involving aluminum foil, plastic, adhesives and polyester--makes them nearly impossible to recycle.

As for Slim-Fast, the director of the Department of Conservation says the company’s claim is under review: “They’re arguing that it’s a meal in a can, not a beverage,” said director Darryl Young. “It’s up to our lawyers to interpret the law and see if that logic makes sense.”

Born amid concerns about litter and a growing national passion for recycling, California’s program has reclaimed more than 100 billion containers--enough to stretch from the Earth to the moon 37 times if laid end to end.

Under the program, consumers pay a 2.5-cent deposit on small containers and a 5-cent deposit on larger ones. They can get a refund by returning their cans and bottles at recycling centers or donate the money through curbside recycling programs, which serve almost two-thirds of single-family homes in California.

In 1989, the program was expanded to include wine coolers after they flooded the market. But it has lagged behind the surging popularity of bottled waters, iced teas and juices, creating confusion about which containers are redeemable for cash and which are not.

“The drinking habits of Californians have changed substantially over the years, so this reform is needed to help the program catch up,” said Mike Paparian of the Sierra Club. “Nobody had heard of Frappucino 15 years ago, but now, quite a few people drink it out of those little bottles.”

Efforts to add wine and milk containers to the list have fizzled, for two reasons. Some argue that they should be exempt because, unlike smaller beer and soda cans, they aren’t a big litter problem along the roadways.

Beyond that, legislators whose districts include wineries and dairies have made it clear they would not support a law that subjects milk and wine to the recycling rules.

Manufacturers don’t want their products included in the program because it adds to their packaging costs--requiring them to pay a “processing fee” to cover the costs of recycling. For glass and plastic, the fee amounts to less than a half-cent per container; for aluminum, there is no fee.

Beverage makers also say they fear the per-container deposit consumers must pay will hurt sales. But some of the nation’s most popular beverages, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, remain bestsellers despite being subject to the 2.5 cent deposit since 1987.

“Californians really want to recycle,” said Young, noting that 88% of the state’s residents save their bottles and cans for reuse. “We’re meeting that demand by making it easier for them to recycle more of their containers.”

Manufacturers have until the end of 2000 to label the newly added containers recyclable. But supermarkets are required to immediately notify shoppers of the change with signs on store shelves.

More information on the recycling program is available at the Department of Conservation web site, www.consrv.ca.gov, or by calling (800) RECYCLE.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Recycling for Cash

Starting Jan. 1, California’s recycling law will include a wider variety of glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers. Consumers will pay more for them at the supermarket but can return the containers to recycling centers for a refund--2.5 cents for small containers, 5 cents for larger ones.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

These can be redeemed at recycling centers:

* Beer and other malt beverage containers

* Wine cooler and distilled spirit cooler bottles

* Carbonated and noncarbonated water containers

* Carbonated and noncarbonated soft drink and sports drink containers

* Carbonated and noncarbonated fruit drink containers

* Coffee and tea drink containers

WHAT’S EXEMPT

These cannot be redeemed:

* Wine bottles

* Distilled spirits bottles