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Letters to the Editor: California might need a ballot initiative to fix recycling

Crushed aluminum cans at a recycling center.
Crushed aluminum cans are stored and ready to ship at the Orange Coast College Recycling Center.
(Los Angeles Times)
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To the editor: I have been saying for years that we should ban plastic containers and allow only aluminum, glass or paper to be used for packaging. I do my best to avoid buying anything in plastic packaging, but with its widespread use, I still cannot completely avoid it. (“The EPA’s new recycling plan is straight out of 1985,” editorial, Nov. 24)

I clean everything that goes into my recycling bin, hoping that my trash will not be sent to a landfill. Others who don’t bother to do this contaminate recyclable material, which ends up in a landfill.

If we do not ban plastic packaging we should at least require that the plastic packaging be made from recycled materials with minimal amounts of new plastic.

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Another major problem is the closure of recycling buyback locations. With no place to redeem the container deposits, we are in effect paying another tax, and homeless people lose a source of income. For some reason, I do not expect our representatives in Sacramento to fix this problem.

I would be in favor of a ballot initiative to suspend the container deposit in any location where the deposit cannot be redeemed nearby. I still remember taking bottles back to the supermarket from where I bought them when I was growing up. We need to get this fixed.

Allen Peery, La Crescenta

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