Bill To Save Collapsing Bottle Deposit System Passes First Legislative Hurdle News provided by Share this article Share this article LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SB 38 (D- Wieckowski), a bill to save the collapsing bottle deposit system by putting the responsibility for recycling empty CRV containers onto the beverage industry, passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee today in a decisive first step towards modernizing California's rigid and antiquated system, Consumer Watchdog said today. The bill, which passed by a vote on 5 to 2, next goes to Senate Appropriations Committee. "The redemption rate in California at 58% is the third worst among bottle deposit states in America," Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, testified before the committee. "SB 38 brings California in line with every successful bottle deposit program in America and the world. By charging the beverage industry as the system operator, and upping the deposit as an incentive to have a higher redemption rate, SB 38 will remake the bottle deposit program into one where an 85% redemption rate is attainable."