California continues to crack down on illegal CRV redemption

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has announced the arrests of 10 suspects accused of smuggling out-of-state beverage containers into California to defraud the state’s California Redemption Value (CRV) fund, the state's equivalent of a bottle bill. The schemes include an alleged three-year criminal enterprise involving the mass shipment of empty beverage containers from Las Vegas to 12 Los Angeles-area recycling centers.

In a news release announcing the arrest, CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline says, “Consumers in other states do not pay CRV on their beverage purchases, so any CRV redemption of out-of-state materials is theft and fraud. CalRecycle will continue to leverage every available resource to protect the integrity of the fund and safeguard the nickels and dimes Californians pay at the cash register.”

According to CalRecycle, In July 2019, the agency requested assistance from its investigative partners at the California Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding a Los Angeles-area undocumented yard suspected of collecting, storing and illegally redeeming out-of-state beverage containers. A subsequent investigation uncovered an organized operation in which material was collected in Las Vegas, delivered by semitruck to two California undocumented yards and illegally redeemed for CRV by 12 Los Angeles recycling centers.

From Sept. 9-11, agents executed search warrants and discovered suspects actively unloading a 53-foot trailer. Confiscated materials included 10,978 pounds of empty aluminum cans and 14,940 pounds of empty plastic bottles with a CRV value of $36,718.

From Sept. 20-22, CalRecycle says it partnered with the California DOJ and the California Department of Food and Agriculture to set up a temporary border checkpoint in Needles, California, to combat the illegal importation of out-of-state CRV materials.

Over the three-day operation, two truck drivers were arrested in separate incidents for allegedly transporting out-of-state empty beverage containers from Nevada and Arizona with the intent of committing fraud against the CRV fund. Agents seized 10,456 pounds of empty aluminum and 9,224 pounds of empty plastic beverage containers with a CRV value of $28,665, according to CalRecycle.