The state's continued raid of the fund that pays for various recycling programs has led to the closure of more than a dozen recycling centers in San Diego County, putting dozens of people out of work, recycling advocates say.

It's also making it harder for people who recycle materials for extra cash to find places to drop off their aluminum, glass and plastic containers.

Over the past six years, the Legislature and the governor have borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from the fund that collects the deposits on bottles and cans that consumers pay when they buy soft drinks and other beverages.

The money pays for various recycling programs, but the fund could soon run out of cash.

Recycling companies that run collection points at various places in the county have closed about a dozen of the sites because they are getting less money from the state for their operations, leaving fewer convenient places for people to take their empty bottles and cans.

The state fund also provides grants to nonprofit organizations who hire at-risk kids to collect recyclable materials.

"It's hit us at so many different levels," said Anne Bernstein, director of development at the Urban Corps of San Diego, a nonprofit organization that received one of the grants.

Since 2002, the state has borrowed $518 million from the fund, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Finance Department.

Palmer said the governor proposed eliminating some of the programs funded by the recycling fund, but the plan was turned down by the Legislature. The governor is looking at possible solutions and will make another proposal to solve the funding problem in his proposed budget in January, Palmer said.

The fund is projected to go about $162 million in the red by next year unless the state finds a solution, Palmer said.

In the meantime, groups that rely on the funding are trying to stay afloat by scaling back and reducing staff.

Bernstein said her organization runs a charter school for at-risk students. The organization helps students complete their high school degrees and helps them financially by providing part-time work collecting bottles and cans.

But the program has been drastically reduced. The organization got a fraction of the nearly $2 million grant it gets each year. That means it has had to let go three employees who supervise its recycling program and more than 20 students who work in the program.

Scott Dosick, managing director of the California Association of Conservation Corps, an umbrella organization for the 12 local Urban Corps programs, said the same thing is happening all over the state.

Dosick said that statewide, the programs, which normally hire about 4,000 people, have had to eliminate about 500 positions. Many of the people they hire are young, some are on parole, some are homeless and some are single mothers.

Statewide, the group has lost about 80 percent of the $15 million in state funding it receives each year, he said.

The state's recycling fund gets money from the 5- and 10-cent deposits consumers pay for most beverage containers. They can get the money back by returning the empty containers to recycling centers. The millions of dollars in deposits that go unredeemed each year fund the state's 23-year-old recycling program.

The money also pays for programs that encourage recycling, including money that subsidizes private companies to collect the materials, such as Tomra Pacific. The company runs collection centers throughout the state, including one on East Valley Parkway in Escondido.

Scott Pederson, who collects and recycles containers for cash, said he likes the convenience of the Escondido collection center. He said the money he gets from recycling helps him get through times when he doesn't have steady work.

"It's like they say, 'It's not trash, it's cash,'" Pederson said. "I'm a painter and a landscaper, so when I don't have work, I do this."

At least 14 collection centers similar to the one in Escondido have closed in recent weeks in San Diego County, including four in North County, according to the Urban Corps of San Diego. The four North County recycling centers that have closed are two in Oceanside, one in San Marcos and one in Bonsall.

That's because the money these companies get from the state also has been drastically reduced.

Dosick said another part of the problem is that more people are recycling in these tough economic times.

"The problem is two-fold," he said.

People are buying fewer beverages, so less money is going into the state fund; at the same time, they are recycling more, which means more is being drawn from the fund, Dosick said.

One possible solution is for the state to pay back the money it borrowed from the fund, Dosick said. Another solution could be to raise the money people pay as a deposit and include more types of containers, he said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 402 in October, which would have raised the amount of the deposit and increased the kinds of containers included in the program. He said the additional costs would be "troubling for many in this economy."

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.