Recycle realities loom for milk cartons

If containers lose the chasing arrows label, they could become unsellable in the state.

- BY SUSANNE RUST

BEVERAGE and food cartons are composed of layers of paper, plastic and sometimes aluminum, making recycling them more difficult.

California milk cartons may lose their coveted recycling symbol, the one with the chasing arrows, potentially threatening the existence of the ubiquitous beverage containers.

In a letter Dec. 15, Waste Management, one of the nation’s largest waste companies, told the state the company would no longer sort cartons out of the waste stream for recycling at its Sacramento facility. Instead, it will send the milkand food-encrusted packaging to the landfill.

Marcus Nettz, Waste Management's director of recycling for Northern California and Nevada, cited concerns from buyers and overseas regulators that cartons — even in small amounts — could contaminate valuable material, such as paper, leading them to reject the imports.

The company decision means the number of Californians with access to beverage carton recycling falls below the threshold in the state’s “Truth in Recycling” law, or Senate Bill 343.

And according to the law, that means the label has to come off.

The recycling label is critical for product and packaging companies to keep selling cartons in California as the state’s single-use packaging law goes fully into effect. That law, Senate Bill 54, calls for all single-use packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. If it isn’t, it can’t be sold or distributed in the state.

The labels also provide a feelgood marketing symbol suggesting to consumers the cartons won’t end up in a landfill when they're discarded, or find their way into the ocean where plastic debris is a large and growing problem.

The state agency in charge of waste, CalRecycle, has acknowledged Waste Management's change.

In updated guidelines for the Truth in Recycling law, recycling rates for carton material have fallen below the state threshold.