Call Kurtis Investigates: Why Are Recycling Centers Vanishing From Grocery Store Parking Lots?

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Everyone who pays five or ten cents a can or bottle for the California Redemption Value may find it harder to cash in their recyclables.

Nearly 200 recycling centers in California have closed this year, according to state figures. The reason? They claim they're not making money.

Sacramento resident John Hunrath says he's now struggling to find a place to cash in his cans and bottles.

"Every place I've looked is closed down," he said.

An empty slab in the corner of a Natomas grocery store parking lot marks where one recycling center once stood.  It was one of 191 RePlanet centers that shut down this year.

The industry says the plastic and aluminum prices are falling and with state subsidies not covering the shortfall, more recyclers may also close.

"Certified redemption centers lost $20 milllion in 2015 due to inadequate state payments," according to the Consumer Recycling Institute. In a news release from April, the trade organization blamed, "an outdated compensation method used by CalRecycle per State Law".

So what does that mean for people like Hunrath, who want to get the CRV back?

Mark Oldfield with CalRecycle admits, "the program is facing a structural deficit," and "it needs an overhaul." But he says by law, people should have a place to turn in their cans and bottles because, "the recycler of last resort becomes the retailer".

We've learned when the state's recycling program was set up 30 years ago, the law stated if there's no recycling center within a half-mile of the store where you bought your cans or bottles; the store is supposed to take them back.

But the law also allows each store to opt out of recycling, paying the state $100 a day, or $36,500 a year per location.

The grocery industry says it just might be the easier option for the 1,400 businesses now impacted.

"Our business is to sell goods and groceries, we're not in the recycling business," said Aaron Moreno with the Grocers Association.

California grocers want lawmakers to suspend these fees and spend the next year-and-a-half overhauling the program.

There's talk at the Capitol to expand that half-mile radius rule, change the way recyclers are subsidized and to possibly waive the $100 grocery store fees until there's another solution.

CalRecycle acknowledges the mess but says in the meantime, it's enforcing current law.

"This was the deal, the bargain that was reached 30 years ago when this program was laid out," said Oldfield.

CalRecycle says there are still nearly 1,800 places statewide taking cans and bottles and you can find your closest recycler on their website.

After going from parking lot to parking lot Hunrath was happy we found one several miles from him. But that won't be the case for some living in remote areas, forcing some like Hunrath to ask if it is worth it to travel farther to cash in their recyclables.

"Maybe it's cheaper to just discard the bottles and cans," said Hunrath.