California is making it easier than ever to cash in your empty beverage containers with more than 250 new recycling sites across 30 counties funded by recycling innovation awards.

CalRecycle just awarded nearly $70 million in Beverage Container Redemption Innovation Grants for 37 projects to add dynamic recycling methods like reverse vending machines, mobile recycling, and bag-drop sites to counties around the state.

Supermarket chains Save Mart and Smart and Final will get over $2 million each for reverse vending machines in 19 counties, including Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Modernized recycling sites will also come to underserved counties including Butte, Imperial, Lassen, Mendocino and Merced.

“Innovative ways to recycle will help more Californians cash in their beverage containers and provide recycled materials for in-state remanufacturers,” CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller said. “These new sites will make redemption as simple as feeding containers into a machine or dropping off a bag of empty containers.”

Residents can look for changes in the coming year, with more funding to collect, reuse and recycle more containers. That funding will include:

$138 million for additional Redemption Innovation grants;

$50 million for Beverage Container Quality Infrastructure grants;

$25 million for Reusable Beverage Container Recycling Infrastructure grants.

New retailer takeback rules in 2025 will go into effect on Jan. 1. Large beverage retailers in areas not served by a recycling center have two choices: Set up a system to redeem beverage container deposits in-store, or create or join a non-profit Dealer Cooperative to redeem with state funding support for each container redeemed, and flexibility to offer reverse vending machines, mobile recycling, or bag-drop recycling to customers.