Set It Aside is an organization that helps put money into schools, local economies, and the environment through turning all recyclables into funding.  Set It Aside picks up, sorts, weighs, and sells all recyclable materials on behalf of customers. 

SIA's fundraising program allows schools, organizations, and non profits, to have customers donate their money, or a portion thereof directly to the organization.  This money is a tax deduction for customers, is money they would have otherwise thrown away, and helps keeps tons of materials going back into the recycling loop.  Set It Aside accepts all paper, plastic, metal, and glass.

Despite there being no laws against customers using third parties to turn in their materials, the Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery for the State of California (CalRecycle) has served SIA with a Cease and Desist Order to disallow a large portion of funding to go back to communities and organizations.

Set It Aside's founder and Program Marketing Director, Joseph Zeleny, cites that customers should have the right to do whatever they want with their materials, whether it's discarding them in their recycling containers, taking them to a recycler on their own, or utilizing a third party.

CalRecycle, who's staff consists of former Waste Management employees, does not want SIA to receive California Redemptive Value (CRV) on applicable materials.  People pay a CRV deposit on many beverages with the claimed incentive for people to recycle these materials.  Though these items make up less than 10% of the total weight of material SIA receives from customers, it is nearly 95% of the revenue for the company. Without this funding, schools, local economies, and worthwhile causes stand to lose out on millions of dollars that can go to them without raising taxes.

SIA also has plans to utilize homeless, struggling, and displaced people to create jobs, open housing options, and lessen the economic burden on society while decreasing the amount of materials that end up in landfills and putting them back into the recycling stream.

Tell CalRecycle that people should be able to decide how to spend their money whether they turn in their recyclables themselves or use a third party.