RECYCLING IN LONDON AND SPAIN

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RECYCLING IN LONDON AND SPAIN
by JANE BOGNER
SUNDAY, September 19, 2004

I’ve just returned from a visit with my sister in London and a week adventure with her to southern Spain. I was pleased to see a recycling bins in residential neighborhoods of London and in small villages high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain. There were prominent recycling bins for paper, plastic bottles and aluminum cans one block away from the historic cathedral in Seville.

England’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recently reported that the government's target of recycling 17 percent of household waste this year will be met. Their next goal is to recycle and compost 25 percent of household waste by 2006. DEFRA provides 265 million Pounds Sterling to help local authorities reach the new target.

One of my silly souvenirs from my trip is a collection of colorful water bottles. I have a dozen red, green, and blue PETE bottles in as many different shapes. Some restaurants served water in reusable glass bottles, but most were either disposable glass or plastic bottles.

Back here in California, we just received the recycling rates for California Redemption Value (CRV) containers for the calendar year 2003. The total CRV recycling rate for all containers was 56 percent with aluminum logging in at 70 percent and glass at 51 percent. PETE plastic bottles were returned at a paltry rate of only 35 percent. These recycling rates do not reflect the new higher CRV price (4 cents or 8 cents on large containers) that went into effect on January 1 of this year. I know VALCORE’s buy back volume has increased and am hopeful that the 2004 recycling rates will dramatically increase. The state averages for the first six months of this year will be available in November.

Nationwide, the aluminum recycling rate is approximately 50 percent, which certainly appears successful. However, the aluminum can recycling rate has decreased each year from a high of 65 percent 1992. Americans are wasting $500 million a year by burying aluminum cans in our land fills.

On my trip, I slipped into many grocery stores and found that most packaging is tall and thin. Local stores do not have the luxury of abundant shelf space so thin means many different products can be displayed.

Now we will start seeing sleeker aluminum cans in this country. Jumping on the successful bandwagon of the slim cans of energy drinks such as Red Bull and other highly-caffeinated beverages, Canadian brewer Molson is marketing beer in sleek aluminum 8.4-ounce cans. Ball Corp has retooled some of their lines to make a 12-ounce Sleek Can that debuted at the Canmaker Summit in Denver last May.

One interesting thing I noticed about aluminum cans in Spain was the weight of the can, Their cans were much heavier that ours. American aluminum can and PETE plastic bottle makers (with the exception of Gatorade) continue to make lighter containers. In 1980, it took 25 aluminum cans to make a pound, while it currently takes 33.5 cans to make a pound.

The bottom line is there is a lot of money for you to make by bringing your cans and bottles into your favorite recycling center for redemption.

VALCORE Recycling Vice President Jane Bogner's "A Sorted Affair" is published every other week in the Times-Herald, Community Outlook Section. For recycling information call Genie Kaggerud, VALCORE Recycling manager at 645-8258 or visit www.VALCORErecycling.org.