Sustainability Snapshot | Winter Quarterly 2021
CRV California Redemption Value Update
The North Coast Co-Op is in Partnership With The CRV Working Group!
In case you didn’t know, the California Redemption Value (CRV) system, the system that allows buy back of bottles and cans, has been more than struggling amidst COVID. The faults in the Bottle Bill of ’86 have been getting wider and the Northern California area has fallen through those cracks. As of late 2020, there are no recycling redemption centers on the north coast able to offer customers buy back on their bottles and cans. And local CRV retailers, including the Co-op, are being charged a daily fee of $100/day (starting in January) unless they accept empty bottles and cans and haul it themselves to the nearest buyback center, which is in Crescent City. This, of course, is not feasible for the Co-op or any other local CRV retailers. The North Coast Co-op has taken part in forming an alliance with other locally owned grocers and our few local recycling centers to create the Grocery CRV Working Group to work together towards solutions for our community. The CRV Working Group has successfully gotten letters of support from City of Fortuna and City of Arcata, with City of Eureka on its way to joining soon! We are thrilled that in early February the CRV Working Group secured an emergency letter from the Statewide CalRecycle Commission with an “URGENT REQUEST TO INCREASE CONVENIENCE TO REDEEM BOTTLE DEPOSITS” to Governor Newsom, Senators, and Assembly Members and the newly appointed Director of CalRecycle. While the issues aren’t solved yet, our group counts these as victories along the bureaucratic process. The Lost Coast Outpost and North Coast Journal are good sources for more information. Thank you HWMA, Recology, Assembly Member Jim Wood’s office and staff for their dedication and support.
