California Attorney General Rob Bonta and CalRecycle issued a press release on Wednesday where they announced felony charges that were filed against six individuals as a result of their alleged involvement in a recycling fraud scheme that occurred in the Los Angeles area.
The six defendants were accused of “defrauding California’s beverage container recycling program by bringing more than nine tons of out-of-state materials from Arizona for redemption.” The felony charges against them include recycling fraud and grand theft.
The California Redemption Value program, or CRV program, is administered by CalRecycle. The program “incentivizes recycling at privately-owned centers with a 5- or 10-cent return on eligible beverage containers.” The CRV program is subsidized by California consumers each time CRV-eligible bottles and cans are purchased in California. The program specifies that only material from California is eligible for return.
The defendants allegedly ran a scheme from September of 2021 to March of 2022 where they imported “aluminum cans and plastic bottles from Arizona to the state of California to unlawfully redeem the California recycling refund value of those items.” By bringing truckloads of material from Arizona to California, the defendants are estimated to have defrauded the CRV fund of more than $10 million.
Arizona does not have a similar program to California’s CRV program. The complaint details that the illegal redemption scheme drains the CRV fund and takes funds that are subsidized by the beverage container purchases of Californians.
“When individuals skirt California’s recycling laws, California consumers are hurt in the process,” Calif. Attorney General Bonta said about the fraud scheme. “My office will continue to fiercely defend California’s programs and resources – and we will hold bad actors who defraud our state accountable.”
