California is known as a green state, but you may be surprised to learn this environmentally conscious state is facing a major crisis with its recyclables. 

“The last 10 or 15 years has been stable. But this is a crisis right now,” said Louie Pellegrini Jr., president of Peninsula Sanitary Service.

Parked steps from the State Capitol sits a three-dimensional, 26-ton display of what some are calling California’s impending crisis. 

Old phone books, boxes of cat food, and a heap of newspapers. 

“It’s our mess, it’s all of California’s mess,” said Chisty Pestoni Abreu. 

Those in the Golden State’s recycling industry say it’s a mess with nowhere to go.

“There’s a potential in the near future that after 30 years of effort and education and participation by residents that this material could end up in a landfill. And that’s a shame,” said Pellegrini.

Pellegrini says exporting prices began plummeting in recent months. 

In December, he says they could ship recycled paper to China for $100 per ton. 

Now, he says the price has dropped to negative $6 a ton.

According to the state, a third of all recyclables in California is exported — 62 percent of that to China. 

Earlier this year, China imposed import restrictions, and will not accept contaminated recyclables. 

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