How to Start Your Own Bottle Return Business | SkillsAndTech

A bottle return business collects empty glass and plastic bottles from consumers and returns them to beverage manufacturing companies for reuse. Some bottling companies complain that fewer consumers are returning bottles because of inconvenient bottle return methods used by retailers or bottle return companies. The methods used are often tedious and time consuming. Therefore, it is important that you come up with an efficient method that will facilitate and encourage consumers to return bottles in a more convenient manner

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Register your business. Register a business name and the business with the Secretary of State depending on the business structure you selected. Also register with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) since you will need to hire employees. Register with the Redemption Center Registration to get your licensed to operate as a bottle redemption point. This is free of charge.

Contact your local municipality to ask about any zoning laws or business requirements. For instance, in New York, bottle return businesses are required to display a redemption warning sign which states that a penalty will be incurred for any returnable bottle that is not returned by the customer.

Hire employees. You need employees who will help you collect and sort out the bottles. Workers will also count bottles when they are returned by customers and pay out deposits for each bottle returned.

Find sources of empty bottles. This can be achieved by partnering with individuals or companies that use bottled drinks such as bars, restaurants, supermarkets, hotels and other forms of eateries. You can convince companies and individuals to let you collect bottles on their behalf.

Set up your collection points. At collection centers, clearly label the various bins to help clients know which bottles go to which bins. Alternatively, you can go around collecting the bottles from various companies or neighborhoods as not everyone would be willing to take the bottles to the designated collection areas.

Establish a collection schedule. Set dates and times when you will carry out the collections from various establishments and stick to it.

Return the bottles to the relevant bottling centers to receive payments for the collected bottles. The payment for each empty bottle depends

on the bottling company. According to Sycrause.com, the average cost per bottle returned is 8.5 cents in New York as of 2009,. It is not a requirement to clean the bottles before returning them as they will get cleaned at the factory by the bottling company. Glass bottles should be returned in crates for easier handling. Most bottling companies that deal with soda, beer, mineral water and carbonated soft drinks accept returns.