Clynk bags after collection for a charity in Maine.
In New York we have a 5 cent deposit on recyclable containers for beer, soda, fortified seltzer and water (but not tea, energy drinks, cider or wine, go figure). I’m sure that most folks simply toss the empties in the trash (so it goes into landfill) or regular recycling (where it may or may not be separated from other items, either at the destination or by neighborhood scavengers). But it’s not that hard to get your money back, thanks to a clever regional service called Clynk.
Clynk is headquartered in Maine, which is also home to the nation’s most comprehensive bottle bill (everything has a deposit, even those pesky ice tea containers). Maine is also the headquarters of Hannaford supermarkets, a regional chain with locations in my town of Saratoga Springs. You sign up online and receive a set of bar code stickers in the mail along with a welcome coupon for an initial supply of 10 bags, which you redeem at your local Hannaford.
Fill the bag with deposit-bearing containers (it’s up to you to be sure no non-deposit cans make it in there), affix a bar code sticker, scan the sticker at a special door at Hannaford then toss the bag through the door. A couple days later a credit will show up when you access your account online. I’ve found that a full bag holds about 100 mixed cans, worth $5. In the short time I’ve been doing this I’ve accumulated over $20 which I can transfer to my bank or give to a charity of my choice. Once my initial supply of bags and stickers is gone I can order more stickers for free and buy more bags at Hannaford for about 25 cents each.
Clynk is far easier than the machines in many supermarkets and beer stores that suck in cans one at a time, and spit out ones the machine doesn’t like (probably because the store doesn’t sell products from that distributor). This seems to be the method preferred by folks who gather cans on the street, but it seems to me time consuming and demeaning when with a little advance planning you could just toss your Clynk bag in the adjacent door.
My preferred beer store has a somewhat easier recycling procedure which I’ve used in the past. You bring in your containers and sort them in bins by plastic, glass and aluminum, then give the cashier a bottle count and redeem your deposit. The store is near the Saratoga Race Course, and they provide bags which workers on the backstretch fill with empties scavenged at the racetrack and bring in for a payment determined by the capacity of the bag. (They look to be about the size of the Clynk bags, so holding 50 containers each.) This is a reasonably efficient system, except that the store has decided they don’t like it. Even though they get 3.5 cents for each container they turn in, the work of sorting the increased volume of cans in tougher times has recently overwhelmed their regular beer business.
Which is why I’m glad I discovered Clynk. This page provides an overview of the program, including states where Clynk is available. If you live in an area with a Hannaford, this page will show you how to get started. If you are a retailer interested in partnering (there are also “white label” programs in addition to branded Clynk at Hannaford), check out this page.
