Sacramento, CA – August 9, 2019 – Today, in response to the announcement by rePlanet, Rachel Michelin, President of California Retailers Association and Rex Hime, President and CEO of California Business Properties Association issued the following statement:
“For three decades, California consumers, business and government together built a robust infrastructure for recycling cans, bottles and other recyclable materials that has reduced our waste stream and benefited our environment.
The recent announcement of the closure of rePlanet and its nearly 300 recycling centers across the state further highlights that this system is in crisis. Falling prices for recycled materials are only the latest blows to a system fraught with increased operating costs and inefficiencies. When the state is sitting on over $300 million in reserve CRV fees, yet the biggest convenience zone recycler in the state goes out of business, something is fundamentally broken.
It is time to step back from piecemeal approaches currently moving through the legislature and take a comprehensive look at how this faltering system can be re-adjusted and re-energized to reflect current economic realities.
California’s recycle their recyclable containers because they want to do their part for our environment. California businesses support environmental sustainability, too, and want to be part of the solution.
We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with California policy makers on a comprehensive approach to sustainability that protects California’s environment, economy, jobs and consumers.”
The California Retailers Association is the only statewide trade association representing all segments of the retail industry including general merchandise, department stores, mass merchandisers, restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and grocery stores, chain drug, and specialty retail such as auto, vision, jewelry, hardware and home stores. CRA works on behalf of California’s retail industry, which currently operates over 400,000 retail establishments with a gross domestic product of $330 billion annually and employs over 3 million people—one fourth of California’s total employment.
CBPA is the designated legislative advocate for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the California Chapters of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP), the Building Owners and Managers Association of California (BOMA), the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) among other commercial real estate organizations. These affiliations make
CBPA the acknowledged voice of the commercial real estate industry in California, representing the largest commercial real estate consortium with over 10,000 members.
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