After decades of consumer and media criticism of California’s failed bottle deposit return program, Governor Newsom and the California Legislature last year finally passed a substantive reform of the program.
They placed the ultimate responsibility for recycling onto grocery stores selling deposit beverages. Starting January 1, 2025, supermarkets, big box and drug store chains have a choice. They must either take back empty containers and refund consumers their deposits or form beverage dealer cooperatives to do that in twothirds of the state’s designated “convenience zones” that lack a single recycling center.
Read the Report here.
