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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         For More Information Contact:

April 22, 2021                                              Joel D. Joseph 310-623-3872

              CARAT Gives Notice to California Grocery Stores, 

                 Demanding They Accept Bottles for Recycling

The California Association for Recycling All Trash (CARAT) has given Ralph’s, Whole Foods, Gelsons, Bristol Farms and Trader Joe’s  notice that it will file suit if the grocery stores do not start accepting returns of bottles and cans.

During the pandemic, hundreds of recycling centers across California have closed. The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, Public Resources Code Section 14500 et seq., applies to all grocery store with more than $2 million in annual sales. These stores must accept returnable bottles and cans at the store or have a recycling center within one-half mile. There are no nearby recycling facilities in most parts of California and none of these stores accept bottles and cans for recycling.

CARAT has given all major grocery stores 30 days notice before a suit is filed under the California Beverage Container Recycling law to start accepting returns of bottles and cans.

CARAT is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting recycling and preventing plastic waste from polluting the oceans. There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the oceans--46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean. All of the fish we consume are now contaminated with plastic particles. Scientists have recently discovered plastic in the stomachs of baby fish off the coast of Hawaii―an alarming find that has significant ramifications for the entire food chain. The discovery was made during a NOAA (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) project aimed at studying fish nurseries. 

The CEO of CARAT, Joel D. Joseph, has practiced environmental law for four decades. He represented the Sierra Club in a landmark case that forced the U.S. Congress to install pollution control devices on the Capitol Power Plant and has argued environmental cases before the United States Supreme Court. He was lead counsel in the Kwikset case in the California Supreme Court that allowed consumers to file suit when products were mislabeled with an inaccurate country of origin label.