Upstate Bottle Return Centers

Get your 5 cent bottle and can deposit back fast!

Upstate Bottle Return Fundraising

We will meet you anywhere, anytime with our trucks and supplies to help host your bottle and can drive. We count it all for you, no limits..

Open An Account

Open a fundraising account and keep an on going balance, skip lines and monitor your balance online.

Donate

Submit a few required materials and we will post your cause to our donations page. We will link to your website, social media or crowdfunding page!

Upstate Bottle Return FAQ

Who we are?

We are Upstate Bottle Return, Western New York’s best redemption centers. We are a new York State registered redemption center. We are authorized to pay you back your 5 cent deposits for any bottle and can bought in New York State.

Once you give our bottle return centers a try, we guarantee you will never use another redemption center again.

What do we accept?

We buy anything with a New York State deposit mark on it. If you check the lable of your bottle or the top of your can; it will tell you which states the item will have a deposit in.

If it has the NY symbol on it, we take it. If it doesn’t we cannot.

What don't we accept?

Non-deposit bottles & cans
- Gatorade
- Iced Teas
- Juice
- Milk, etc. Our buyer’s plant does not process non-deposits.

Kegs
Growlers
Water cooler jugs
Crumpled or crunch items
Wrapperless items

Why no crushed or wrapperless items?

We have to sell the bottles and cans back based on average bag capacity per the size of the item. So, if we put crushed cans in our bags we are putting in a lot more than the average bag capacity and lose money. If we don’t have wrappers to identify the item, we can’t put it with the correct bags to be properly accounted.

How does a bottle return make money?

Per the New York Bottle Bill in 2009, a registered bottle return makes a handling fee per bottle or can received.

We buy them for 5 cents and sell them for more. We make our money off the resale, not off of you.

Do we take all recycling?

We recycle the bags and boxes that you bring your bottles and cans in. However, we cannot accept other recycling in bulk. The disposal bill would be too high not to charge for that service. The company that we sell to only takes bottles and cans. Their plant cannot process anything else.

We recommend taking all of your other recycling needs to ecopark if you live in the Rochester area. If you are in Buffalo check out buffalorecycles.org. They both can help you recycle absolutely anything.

Does it matter where I bought them?

Nope. Registered redemption centers like Upstate Bottle Return are authorized to pay you back for your deposit no matter where you purchased it.

However, if the bottle or can was purchased in a non-deposit state, we cannot pay for it as there was never a deposit on it to begin with.

We sort all of them by brand, size and material. When we sell them back to the plant it gets properly accounted for.

What makes it depositable or not?

Embarrassingly enough we don’t know. We were unable to find any information on the motives for only including some of our drinking containers. But, an easy way to think about it is of its carbonated or water it probably has a deposit. If it’s not carbonated, it probably doesn’t have a deposit. There are expections to the rule however.

If the container has the mark of NY 5 cents, our Wolcott Redemption Center will take it.

What if my bags are gross?

We know your bottles and cans might get dirty & sticky from time to time and it’s OK, we have gloves! We just ask that you try your best not mix in excess garbage. However, for sanitary reasons we cannot accept insect infected bags or rotting food.