Hundreds of Millions Stolen in Bottle Redemption Scam as Recycling Centers Are Closed

Homeless and Low Income Folks Shut Out of Recycling

With the closing this week of the Santa Monica Recycling Center, there is now no place to redeem your bottles and cans west of the 405 Freeway.  Not only has the State failed to return the money collected from consumers to help the local recycling centers, but a criminal conspiracy between the State of California, some of the large grocers, and certain trash waste haulers have put hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.

Another side-effect is that many thousands of homeless folks, low income folks, and other citizens who make all or part of their meager living by picking up trash and bottles for recycling are finding it hard to keep doing it because over 40% of the recycling centers have closed down, meaning that in many areas there is nowhere to go to turn in your bottles and cans.  Collecting and redeeming bottles and cans brings in a small amount of coin for the poverty class.  Cheating the public in such a blatant way is one more example of the class war that is being conducted by the political elite in Sacramento and many other states..

Over 1,000 Redemption Centers closed in California

According to Susan Collins of  the Container Recycling Institute, over 1000 Redemption Centers have been recently closed.  All of us are forced to pay the CRV (recycling) fee when you buy water or beverages.  You pay 5 cents for small bottles and 10 cents for large containers.  You are entitled by law to get your  money back, but the State of California has found a way to cheat you by making it almost impossible to return the bottles.  When this program started years ago the merchant who sold you the beverage had to take the container back.  Then all the merchants were exempted due to lobbying by the big market chains because it was a bother for them..  The greedy crooks in California didn’t want to cut the markets in for their trouble in collecting the fees and then collecting the bottles back, so they then contracted out to some companies to install machines in some (not all) market locations.These machines were not programmed correctly, here’s a video we shot back in 2010 proving that Ralph’s market collected the CRV and then Rejected the bottle for a return credit.

Consumer Watchdog Accuses California of Breaking the Social Contract 

Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, has accused the State of California of breaking the social contract with it’s citizens.  The Cal Recycle Agency is sitting on $360 Million Dollars, money they have collected from consumers they have cheated from getting their deposits back.  God knows how many more millions have been siphoned off or stolen.  For instance, who audits the tens of thousands of gas stations, small markets, large markets and other outlets who COLLECT the deposit money.  How much of that cash is actually just EMBEZZLED and never given to the State?  In addition, some independent recycling centers have been caught trucking in plastic bottles from Arizona and selling them to the State for CRV deposit.  The “per pound” price paid for plastic bottles can often be less than the California CRV, another way the consumer is cheated by this system.  The State also was cheated when recycling centers bought plastic bottles from out of state by the pound and sold them to California for the higher CRV.

Santa Monica Closes the Last Redemption Center on the Westside

Santa Monica, choked off from funds even though the gluttonous Governor and his cronies are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of consumer paid in money, is closing the last Recycling Center on the Westside of Los Angeles.  The West L.A. area consumers pay around 6 million dollars a year for CRV deposits,  Now, there is nowhere close to go to get your money back.  Here’s a video of the closing, with Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog and Susan Collins of Container Recycling Institute:

Outrage over Santa Monica City Council Action Closing Center

With the Recycling Center now closed, thousands of homeless and low-income folks have nowhere to take bottles collected off streets.  Consumers have nowhere to get their deposits back.  The City, meanwhile pays trash haulers huge amounts to fill landfills.  The bottles and cans in trash trucks go mostly to landfills because they are contaminated inside the trucks.  The bottles and cans collected by the Recycling centers are generally clean and can be made into new bottles and cans.

The United States Attorney Must Investigate This Corruption in the State of Caifornia

The U.S. Attorney should launch a serious investigation into this multi-million dollar fraud.  Here’s some of the main points.

1.  The State of California has committed massive fraud on it’s citizens and broken the law by cheating and scamming consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars through devious means.
2.  Investigate the large markets, the gas station stores and all stores selling beverages for signs of embezzling the cash from CRV deposits.
3. Investigate the donations, cash and possible bribes from the trash hauling industry to politicians in Sacramento.
4. Demand that all outlets that sell beverages must also redeem the CRV.
5. Re-open enough recycling centers to handle the job.  It should not have to be a half a days trek to return a few bottles.
6. .Investigate the Cal Recycle bureaucrats for misuse of funds, fraud on consumers, and provoking class war on homeless folks and low income folks who survive on doing society a big favor for very little money.