Ever wonder how bottle redemption works?

At least once a day, a customer comes in and asks "how do you make money doing this"?   Basically, container redemption works like this...   A customer brings in a container which has .05 cent NYS deposit which is marked either on the top of the bottle/can or by the UPC code.  I make sure it is a redeemable container and I refund the customer's .05 cent deposit.  Every week a recycling company picks up the containers that I have paid for.  Approximately, 2 weeks after pick up, I receive a check that includes the .05 cent deposit plus a handling fee of .035 cents per container for sorting, bagging, and returning the container to the manufacturer via the recycling company.

Any containers that are not redeemed is credited back to the manufacturer.  On a periodic basis, the manufacturer pays the State of New York 80% of any uncollected deposit funds, which believe me, amounts to MILLIONS of dollars!  So if you are like me and feel as though you pay enough for your beverages or pay enough out to NYS in taxes, you will RETURN your redeemable containers and get your nickel back!