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SANTA MARIA –
California Department of Conservation
Director Darryl Young today recognized a
variety of public and private
organizations in Santa Maria for their
efforts to “stop the drop” and encourage
greater recycling of beverage
containers.
“Today we recognize
the significant efforts of the Santa
Maria community to support beverage
container recycling,” Young told an
assembly of students and local community
leaders at Juan Pacifico Ontiveros
Elementary School. “By helping recycle
bottles and cans, you not only are
conserving natural resources, but you
are helping keep your beautiful
community free of litter.”
Young presented
several awards of recognition to
individuals and organizations for their
support of local recycling efforts.
The City of Santa
Maria, in cooperation with Larrabee
Brothers Recycling, used a grant from
the department to install recycling bins
in city parks to help remind people to
recycle when they’re out and about as
well as at home.
Since 1994, Ontiveros
Elementary’s Therese Brady and her
second- and third- grade students have
participated in “Kids Can Teach Other
Kids About the Environment, Too!,” a
nationally recognized education project
between the school and Health Sanitation
Service, the local waste hauling
company.
The program includes
a student-designed brochure, an
aggressive on-site recycling program and
an annual “Green Ribbon Week” recycling
education fair for students. The
department’s Division of Recycling is
adding the children-developed recycling
brochure to its list of statewide
education materials.
The awards ceremony
at Ontiveros School included an
appearance by Recycle Rex, California’s
recycling “spokesdinosaur.”
Only 61 percent of
the beverage containers sold in
California were recycled in 2000. That
means more than six billion containers
were thrown away. The department’s
statewide promotional campaign, launched
in May, is designed to spread the
message that people should “Recycle.
It’s good for the bottle. It’s good for
the can.”
The average recycling
rate during the 1990s was 77 percent.
The addition of new CRV containers –
many of them plastic, which historically
has been recycled at lower rates than
aluminum – is cited by the department as
a primary reason for the decline.
California is one of
10 states with a beverage
container-recycling program. The
department administers the California
Beverage Container Recycling and Litter
Reduction Act, which became law in 1986.
The primary goal of the act is to
achieve and maintain high recycling
rates for each beverage container type
included in the program.
Consumers pay CRV
(California Refund Value) when they
purchase beverages from a retailer. The
deposits are refunded when empty
containers are redeemed through local
recycling centers. More information on
the state's beverage container recycling
program is available at
www.bottlesandcans.com, or by
calling 1-800-RECYCLE.
In addition to
promotion of the state's beverage
container recycling program, the
department administers programs to
safeguard agricultural and open-space
land; regulates oil, gas and geothermal
wells in the state; studies and maps
earthquakes, landslides and mineral
resources; and ensures reclamation of
land used for mining.
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