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Recycling Centers Need State Help with Changing Prices on Plastics and Aluminum

Some recycling centers in California are closing because the money they are getting from their daily haul is not enough to pay their bills. For customers, the CRV (California Redemption Value) is not going down and they are still getting a nickle or dime per bottle, for example, but the businesses are getting less per ton down the line.

Santa Barbara Iron and Metal on Gutierrez street is a family run business for 37 years. They are staying open but they have definitely seen a change in the way the recycle business pays in California.

They are hoping the state sees the drop in the market price for some items, especially the now thinner plastic water bottles, and helps with a financial subsidy to make ends meet.

A new state report shows over 450 recycling centers have closed in the last year. That hurts customers who have paid their deposits at the stores and are looking for a place to get their redemptions.

The recycling business owners say the system to calculate payments to centers is not up to current standards. The state Senate is looking at the issue but no solutions have been presented so far.

If more centers close the recyclables “would go in the trash and no one wants to see that. We have to push for recycling, ” said Dolores Silvas with Santa Barbara Iron and Metal.

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