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Container Recycling Fees (CRFs)
Each year, ABCRC’s Board of Directors reviews the cost of beverage container recovery for the previous year. The actual cost of recovery for each type of beverage container (based on the material from which the container is made and size of the container) is compared to the revenue from unredeemed deposits and the sale of processed material; the deficit that results is the basis for the next year’s Container Recycling Fee, or CRF, for that type of beverage container.
Beverage manufacturers are required to pay CRFs to cover the net cost of recovering and processing every used, non-refillable beverage container. They may pass on this fee to the retailers who sell their product; those retailers, in turn, might pass on the fee to consumers when they set their prices. In this case, retailers can either include the CRF in the sale price of a beverage or they can add it to the cost of the beverage afterward (shown separately on sales receipts).
CRFs are administered by ABCRC, updated annually (usually coming into effect on February 1 each year) and used in their entirety to operate an effective and sustainable collection and recycling system.
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