"SACRAMENTO -- Recycling centers across California are closing, and scores of troubled youths are being tossed from 'green' jobs onto unemployment rolls in the wake of Sacramento's raid on bottle deposit funds.

California's recycling treasury, filled by consumers' nickel and dime deposits on drink containers, had hummed along successfully for two decades until state officials left it nearly bankrupt after taking $451 million out to help balance the budget.

The unredeemed deposits that subsidized recycling facilities and such projects as a local conservation corps are virtually gone, leaving the programs in the lurch."

Shane Goldmacher reports for the Los Angeles Times November 30, 2009. [2]