CalRecycle awards Beverage Container Redemption Innovation Grants

California has added more than 250 new recycling sites across 30 counties with nearly $70 million in financing from CalRecycle in the form of Beverage Container Redemption Innovation Grants.

“Innovative ways to recycle will help more Californians cash in their beverage containers and provide recycled materials for in-state remanufacturers,” CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller says. “These new sites will make redemption as simple as feeding containers into a machine or dropping off a bag of empty containers.”

Thirty-seven projects have received funding that will add recycling methods that include reverse vending machines, mobile recycling or bag-drop sites to counties around the state.  

Supermarket chains Save Mart and Smart and Final will get more than $2 million each to install reverse vending machines in 19 counties. Modernized recycling sites also are coming to underserved counties, including Butte, Imperial, Lassen, Mendocino and Merced, CalRecycle says.   

CalRecycle says more is to come in the coming year, including more funding to collect, reuse and recycle more containers, including $138 million for additional RedemptionInnovation grants, $50 million for Beverage Container Quality Infrastructure grants and $25 million for Reusable Beverage Container Recycling Infrastructure grants. 

Additionally, new retailer takeback rules will be introduced in 2025. As of Jan. 1 of next year, large beverage retailers in areas not served by a recycling center can set up a system to redeem beverage container deposits in-store or create or join a nonprofit Dealer Cooperativeto redeem with state funding support for each container redeemed and the flexibility to offer reverse vending machines, mobile recycling or bag-drop recycling to customers.