It takes a long time to count all the bottles and cans recycled in California, so it was only last month that the California Department of Conservation announced some good news from 2007. Last year, Californians recycled 14.7 billion cans and bottles — 1.5 billion more than in 2006.

The increase might seem impressive, but real progress in recycling can be better determined by looking at a related number. Improved efforts also increased the recycling rate for bottles and cans covered by the department's California Redemption Value (CRV) system. The recycling rate rose to 67 percent, a 7 percent increase from 2006. This means Californians not only recycled more cans and bottles, but also increased the overall percentage of containers being recycled.

Past numerical increases have often been accompanied by lower recycling percentages. How is that possible? Because of three ongoing problems that are finally being resolved.

First, not all types of containers are included in the CRV program, and as new types are added, recycling totals can increase, but percentages might not improve. For example, when water bottles were added to the CRV program, a massive influx raised the recycling raw totals, but the category has a poor recycling rate.

A second challenge is the increasing use of bottles and cans by people who are on the go and consuming them outside home or work. This challenge required more recycling bin locations and collection efforts.

The third challenge was not a factor in 2007 and might be a key to California's recent improvements.

Typically, the number of bottles and cans sold each year increased, so improvements in collection and processing barely kept pace with the higher supplies. But according to the state, the number sold in 2007 was nearly the same as in 2006. As California's population rises, however, we can expect the challenge of increasing supplies to reoccur this year.

Local city and county recycling coordinators are using state funds to address all three challenges. The Ventura County Integrated Waste Management Division worked with the county General Services Agency to place recycling containers at parks, campgrounds, hiking trails and beaches. The division also worked with rapidly growing CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo, providing state-funded containers for classrooms, dorm areas and parking lots. The county staff also used state funds to provide Lake Casitas with recycling containers for large events there.

In cities, Department of Conservation funds have paid for a variety of similar projects, including recycling at events such as Oxnard's Earth Day and Moorpark's third of July festivals. Local jurisdictions have also used the funds to provide supplies for the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.

Even with the recently improved recycling rates, about one of three containers gets thrown away instead of recycled, so the Department of Conservation builds up a multimillion-dollar fund of unclaimed deposits each year. In addition to providing grants to local governments, the state has provided funds for recycling bins for state parks, multifamily buildings, nonprofit groups and businesses.

Even though the deposits are not wasted when bottles and cans are tossed, trashing natural resources is a real environmental waste. Making new bottles and cans out of mined resources instead of recycled material takes at least 90 percent more energy for cans and 18 percent more energy for glass. Recycling an aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours. Conserving these resources for the future saves energy, reduces pollution and creates local jobs.

Improving recycling programs by adding convenient collection containers will help people keep an eye on the environment.

On the Net:

http://www.bottlesandcans.com

http://container-recycling.org

http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/qh_grants.htm

— David Goldstein is an environmental resource analyst for the county of Ventura. Representatives of government or nonprofit agencies that want to submit articles on environmental topics for this column should contact Goldstein at 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.