California Halts Recycling Scam

Date: October 24, 2002

Source: News Room

After a yearlong investigation, law enforcement officers have arrested 14 people accused of defrauding the state's recycling program of millions of dollars by hauling bottles and cans from Mexico and neighboring states and redeeming them in Los Angeles. State officials said the consortium was purchasing aluminum cans as scrap in states that do not require a recycling deposit and then cashing them in at California recycling centers, where deposit money is returned. Discarded aluminum cans in Nevada, Arizona and Utah could be purchased for about $950 a ton and then sold in California for about $2,490 a ton. Plastic bottles netted even higher profits, selling for $90 a ton out of state and bringing in $910 in California.

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