A better way to cash in cans

Archiv – USA | Just 75 billion of the 200 billion beverage containers that are sold in the United States each year are recycled, which is not only bad for the environment but represents a big commercial opportunity. USA | Just 75 billion of the 200 billion beverage containers that are sold in the United States each year are recycled, which is not only bad for the environment but represents a big commercial opportunity. Currently, 11 states offer deposit refunds on drink containers, and six states offer them on water bottles. Clynk hopes to take advantage of that market with a patent-pending system that scans bar codes on bottles and cans, enabling the containers to be returned to their manufacturers. Can or bottle makers in Maine must pay Clynk a 35-cent fee per container. The company is licensed as a bank in Maine and provides accounts for customers where the change they get from recycling can be deposited. Clynk now has 165 drop-off locations in Hannaford supermarkets in New England and intends to sell its scrap material in non-bottle-bill states as well. “The material you get from curbside recycling is awful,” says Tex Corley, CEO of glass recycler Strategic Materials, but Clynk’s material is ’extremely high quality with no contamination’.