SACRAMENTO, California — Consumer advocacy groups sent California’s recycling regulator a petition Monday to lower payments to mixed-waste collectors so more money can go toward recyclers, highlighting a fight over who should benefit most from fees meant to incentivize recycling.
The petition by Consumer Watchdog and the Container Recycling Institute comes as California is trying to expand its troubled and underperforming beverage container recycling program. The program collects fees from consumers purchasing containers made of glass, tin and other metals to reimburse their recycling.
Both recycling centers and curbside waste haulers collect the recyclable material and can claim payouts from the Beverage Container Recycling Fund.
The petition asks CalRecycle to start a new rulemaking process to change the way it calculates the “conmingled rate,” which is what it pays curbside haulers for the material they collect, including both recyclable containers subject to the California Redemption Value fee and waste not subject to the fee.
