CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Judge Blocks New Bottle Fees

A judge has prevented the state from imposing a new fee on glass beverage containers under California’s recycling law. The fee was imposed by the state Division of Recycling on the makers of glass bottles, at the rate of a small fraction of a penny per bottle. It was to have gone into effect Monday. The division contended that the reason for the fee was that the price of recycled glass had fallen so low that it would no longer support the cost of collection and processing. It cited as evidence the dumping of glass into landfills. But the glass industry said the glass being dumped was too contaminated by rocks, ceramics, metal or other debris to be recycled. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James T. Ford said the recycling law did not authorize new fees.