9-13-13 1:57pm
I am thoroughly dismayed with the California Redemption Value system. I went out of my way today to go to RePlanet to get the actual amount due to me per item, but they don’t accept crushed/smashed cans or bottles. Really? They’d prefer to smash them personally. I paid the CRV. I want it back. Is it really that difficult? Do other states also steal your money for recycling?
© Michelle Routhieaux 2013
Writing Towards Happy 
I always took my cardboard, paper, glass, plastic, steel and aluminum cans to a Waste Management depot in Paso Robles. The first time I went I asked if I could crush the cans to save space in my recycling bin and they said yes. They dump them into a big bin and weigh them to calculate the refund. I counted once and they only missed it by one can, in my favor. Paso had a RePlanet center but I never went there. I suggest you look around for another recycling depot.
Thanks. It’s not the cans I’m concerned about but the bottles. Plastic bottles all used to weight about the same, but now a fair amount of them are super flimsy plastic and the weight system does not take into account that 6 of my flimsy bottles weigh the same as one regular one and I should be paid for 6, not 1. It makes me angry. I was excited to see I could be paid for all 6 at RePlanet but I crush my bottles. No can do. (sigh) I’d like a better solution.
I see. I usually had a few plastic CRVs and they just counted those by hand. Good luck finding a better place!
I am hoping to rally a revolution in this area. It’s ridiculous how quickly they take our money how many hoops we have to jump through to get it back, all in the name of recycling and ” keeping trash out of the streets and landfills”. I get it, I recycle, I’m not going to throw the plastic or aluminum cans in the regular trash. But why do I have to pay a deposit and then go through so much trouble to get it back? of course I can just throw it in my recycling barrel, which I also pay for, but then I’m only paying twice.
I saved the bottles for 3 months in my garage. I went to replant it with my girls and said hey girls look there’s no line! I found out that they were actually closed at 4:30 p.m.. I went another day at 1 o’clock in the afternoon found out that the guy was on lunch break while people were waiting in line. I finally gave the bottles away to somebody else who was waiting there. My money gone, along with the gas that was spent to haul those bottles around looking for a chance to recycle. When I was a kid you could take your bottles back to any store that sold soda and get your deposit back immediately at the counter. Simple.