On January 1, 2024, the State of California added several beverage containers and packages to the CRV (California Redemption Value) container deposit and recycling program. Below is a list of common beverage containers being charged a deposit for recycling under this program. Please review it carefully to ensure you recycle only approved containers.

Tri-Cities customers have two convenient ways to recycle the beverage containers included in the CRV program. They can either place them in their blue curbside mixed recycling cart or take them to a local beverage container recycling center to receive a refund of the CRV deposit paid at the point of purchase.

Accepted in your blue mixed recycling cart or at a CRV buy-back center:

  • Single-serving aluminum cans & bottles

  • Single-serving plastic water & soda bottles

  • Single-serving glass beer, wine cooler, and non-alcoholic beverage bottles

  • Full-size glass wine & liquor bottles

  • Large plastic fruit and vegetable juice containers and water bottles

  • Plastic wine pouches (cut the top corner of the pouch & drain all liquid)

  • Paper cartons from wine, liquor, and pre-mixed cocktails

  • Bag-in-box wine packaging (see special handling instructions below)

    See our recycling guide for other non-CRV containers accepted in your recycling cart

Plastic milk jugs are not accepted at beverage container recycling centers but can be placed in your blue mixed recycling cart.

Special handling instructions for bag-in-box wine packaging

Recycling in your blue mixed recycling cart?

  1. Separate the cardboard box from the inner pouch.

  2. Cut off the corner of the pouch and drain all liquid.

  3. Place the cardboard box and the empty pouch separately in the recycling cart.

Recycling at a CRV buy-back center?

  1. Do your best to drain all liquid from the inner pouch through the port in the bag.

  2. Do not separate the cardboard box from the pouch (both pieces are required to receive your refund of the CRV deposit).

  3. Take to an approved CRV buy-back center for a refund of your deposit.

Click here to locate a nearby beverage container recycling center.

Put these items in the trash.
Not acceptable in either program.

  • Juice pouches

  • Juice boxes

  • Tetra-style beverage containers (like those for soy & oat milk)

  • Gable-top paper beverage containers (like those for orange juice or half & half)

What Happens When We Recycle

Newspapers & Magazines

Shredded newspapers are put into a hydra-pulper and converted to a paste. Shredded magazines are added because the clay in the magazines helps to remove the ink. Screens are used to remove contaminants. The pulp is bleached and mixed with pulp from wood chips that have been added to strengthen it. The water is drained off. The pulp is flattened out and dried by steam-heated rollers. It is then trimmed and rolled up as white blank newsprint stock, later to be remade into newsprint.

Recycled newspaper is reprocessed into newsprint, wrapping paper, and manufactured into molded packaging. It can also be shredded and added to fireproofing materials for blown-in cellulose insulation or sheetrock surfacing.

Cardboard

Corrugated cardboard is pulped and blended with new pulp from wood chips. The pulp is screened, rolled, and dried into medium (the ribbed inner layer) and liner board (the smooth outer layer). These materials are sold to a boxboard plant to be formed into new corrugated cardboard or paper for brown paper bags.

Aluminum

Aluminum scrap is ground or shredded before being melted and cast into molds. The molds are sent to manufacturing plants and are molded or rolled into sheets that can be shaped into various products.

Rolled sheets of recycled aluminum can be formed into many products, such as car bodies. Aluminum is cast (molded) or extruded into useful forms like soda cans.

Metal Cans

"Tin" cans are really tin-coated steel cans. The tin coating on steel cans is removed with a de-tinning solution and then extracted from the solution by electrolysis. The remaining steel is rinsed, baled, and sold to a steel mill.

When tin and steel are separated, tin is used by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and the steel is remanufactured into cars, cans, and structures like steel beams. Most steel products contain some recycled steel.

Glass

Recycled glass is remanufactured into glass containers and fiberglass insulation. Construction uses for glass include utility trench backfill, road base material, and “glassphalt” paving.

Plastics

Only certain types of clean plastic can be recycled. Tri-Cities accepts plastics numbered 1, 2, and 5 in the blue mixed recycling carts. Recyclable plastic containers must be empty, clean, and dry to be recycled. Plastic bags and film wrap are not recyclable in our system.

Recyclable plastics are sorted, shredded, and screened for impurities (such as plastic or paper labels). They are then melted and reshaped into consistently-sized plastic resin pellets known as “nurdles.” These pellets can then be heated and reshaped into new plastic goods.

It’s important to note that thin plastics, such as water bottles, “downgrade” during recycling, which limits their value and usefulness in the recycling marketplace. The downgrading of single-use plastics is why consumers should use reusable beverage and food containers whenever possible.

Motor Oil

Recycled motor oil can be re-refined into synthetic motor oil and used to lighten bunker fuel, which is the heavy residue of virgin oil refining. It can be used in ship boilers, asphalt manufacturing plants, and cement and lime kilns.

Yard Waste, Food Waste & Food Scraps

Diverting Organic Waste is the Law
State laws such as AB 1826 and SB 1383 restrict placing organic materials such as clean, unpainted wood, yard waste, food waste, and food scraps in California landfills. Landfilling organic materials creates the potent greenhouse gas methane, contributing to the negative effects of human-generated climate change.

Who & How
Salinas Valley residential, business, restaurant, school, and multi-family complex customers have plenty of options for diverting landscaping and food materials from landfills. Residential customers can now place yard waste and food scraps in their green curbside mixed organics cart. Restaurants, schools, and food service outlets can place food waste in the brown food scraps collection cart. Large food waste generators, such as food processors, can subscribe to roll-off dumpster and depackaging services. Commercial landscapers can deliver clean landscaping waste directly to the composting area at the Johnson Canyon Landfill or a transfer station in Salinas or Jolon (near King City).

How it’s Made
Clean organic materials are delivered to the compost area at the Johnson Canyon Landfill outside Gonzales, CA. There, the materials are processed using various techniques. Packaged foods from processors, like bagged lettuce and salads in clamshells, are first run through a “depackaging” process that separates the food from the plastic packaging. Residential food and landscaping materials are sent directly to the static aerated piles to begin the composting process.

During the composting process, microbes naturally found in food and landscape materials heat up and become biologically active when water and air are introduced. The composting process produces high temperatures (a minimum of 131 degrees Fahrenheit is required) as the compost is broken down and sanitized in a natural process similar to pasteurization. The initial composting process takes about 30 days. After composting, the pile is screened to produce two unique end products. The final “curing” process can take up to 60 days.

The Finished Products
The result of the composting process is both mulch and compost. Mulch is a woody ground cover that retains soil moisture and prevents weeds from sprouting. Compost is organic matter that is broken down to a fine consistency through the composting process. It can be used as a valuable fertilizer and soil amendment in home gardens and commercial agriculture.

Preventing Contamination
Plastics and pet waste are the most frequent contaminants in the organics recycling stream. Because compost is used to grow food, it is important that you do everything you can to prevent contamination in the compost stream. Never bag your food scraps, and do not put pet waste or plastics in your food waste or mixed organics cart.

To learn more about how to be successful in diverting your landscaping waste and food scraps from the landfill, visit the Salinas Valley Recycles website.