Recycling Plastic Bottles for Cash: Only Ten States Pay

You can only sell drink containers for cash in the ten states that run a deposit scheme, and what you get back is the deposit you already paid rather than a scrap price. Everywhere else there is no household market for used plastic bottles at any price. In deposit states the choice between being paid by count and by weight is worth more than most people realise: on the published California rates a two litre bottle returns 15.1 cents by weight against 10 cents by count, while a 500 ml water bottle returns 5 cents by count against 3.2 cents by weight.

The common advice to always ask for a count is therefore wrong for heavy containers, and we can show why from the state's own rate table.

Only ten states pay anything

• California pays 5 cents under 24 ounces and 10 cents at 24 ounces and over, with over 1,300 redemption sites, and recently added wine and distilled spirits.
• Michigan pays 10 cents and reports the highest return rate in the country, around 93 percent since the scheme began.
• Oregon pays 10 cents, covers the widest range of drinks including juice, coffee, tea and kombucha, and its centres accept up to 144 containers a visit.
• Connecticut raised its deposit from 5 to 10 cents and saw its rate move from the low forties to 53.5 percent within a quarter.
• Maine pays 5 cents on most containers and 15 cents on wine and spirits, with a bag-and-drop system that counts for you, and reports around 77 percent.
• Vermont pays 5 cents, 15 cents on liquor bottles, and reports around 72 percent.
• New York pays 5 cents, unchanged since the scheme began, with a redemption rate near 65 percent.
• Massachusetts pays 5 cents but covers only about 42 percent of beverage types, and its rate has fallen from 66 percent to 36 percent, the lowest of any deposit state.
• Iowa, Hawaii operate smaller schemes on similar terms.

Everywhere else, the answer to selling bottles for cash is that there is no buyer.

Count or weight: the calculation almost nobody does

In California you have a legal right to be paid per container for up to 50 containers of each material type per transaction. Above that, the centre may pay by weight using published rates.

Those rates are averages blended across 5 cent and 10 cent containers, which is exactly why the choice matters. Working the arithmetic from the published figures:

The break-even points fall out of the same table:

• A 5 cent PET container lighter than about 15.5 grams does better by count.
• A 10 cent PET container lighter than about 31 grams does better by count.
• Anything heavier does better by weight.

So thin water bottles should be counted and two litre bottles should be weighed, which is the opposite of the blanket advice usually given. Ask the centre to calculate both ways; regulations require them to post refund prices by weight, by container and by material type.

The rate table itself is revealing

The published minimum per pound rates make the underlying logic visible:

• Aluminium: 31.1 containers a pound, $1.66
• #1 PET: 26.7 a pound, $1.46
• #2 HDPE: 9.3 a pound, $0.67
• Glass: 1.79 a pound, $0.101
• #6 polystyrene: 109 a pound, $5.45

The polystyrene line is not a windfall. It reflects how extraordinarily light a foam beverage container is, at about 4 grams each. Glass sits at the other extreme, at roughly 253 grams per container.

Your rights and the caps

• 50 containers of each material type may be counted individually per transaction. Wine and spirits speciality containers are capped at 25.
• Anyone denied that right can file a complaint with the state agency.
• Daily weight limits apply: 100 pounds each for aluminium and plastic, 1,000 pounds for glass, 50 pounds for bag-in-box, and 25 pounds each for pouches and cartons.
• 100 pounds of PET at the published rate is about $146, which is the practical ceiling on a single visit.
• Containers must be whole and free of dirt and liquid. Centres may refuse excessively contaminated material.
• A load paid by weight must contain only eligible containers. Non-deposit items in the load can disqualify it.
• Separate by material before arriving. It speeds the transaction and protects the count option.

What raising the deposit actually does

The evidence on deposit levels is unusually clean, because several states changed theirs and the effect is measurable.

• Oregon raised its deposit from 5 to 10 cents. Its redemption rate rose from 64 percent to 86 percent within three years, and now sits near 89 percent.
• Connecticut doubled its deposit and moved from the low forties to 53.5 percent in a single quarter, with a cross-border return surge from neighbouring states that prompted a fraud response.
• Michigan, at 10 cents throughout, reports about 93 percent and an 84 percent reduction in beverage litter.
• Massachusetts, still at 5 cents and covering only carbonated drinks, beer, malt beverages and sparkling water, has fallen to 36 percent.

The pattern is consistent: the deposit level and the breadth of covered drinks together explain most of the variation between states.

Proposals to double deposits and widen coverage are live in New York and Massachusetts, and several states without schemes have studied introducing one.

If you are not in a deposit state

The honest answer is that used plastic bottles have no household cash value.

• Scrap yards do not buy them. Their business is metal, and post-consumer plastic has no counter price.
• Kerbside collection is the route, and it pays nothing directly.
• Bottle drives run by schools and sports teams work only in deposit states, where 1,000 containers at 10 cents is $100.
• The nearest equivalent is aluminium, which does have a scrap price everywhere, as our aluminium can analysis sets out.

If a search brought you here hoping to sell bottles, the useful conclusion is to check whether your state runs a scheme first, because that single fact decides everything else.

Where this fits

Why the resin code does not determine collection is covered in recycling numbers explained, and the wider stream question sits on the recycling hub. The metal comparison, where a genuine scrap market exists, is on our metal and cans page.

How we produced this

The per-pound rates, containers-per-pound figures, count entitlements and daily load limits are taken directly from the California state recycling agency's published consumer rate table and guidance. The count-against-weight comparison is our own arithmetic applied to those published figures and to typical empty container weights, which vary by brand and design.

We have published this calculation because widely repeated advice says count always wins, and the state's own numbers show that is not true for heavier containers. Weigh or check your own bottles rather than assuming; the break-even is close enough that container design matters.

Deposit values, covered beverages and redemption rates for other states come from state programmes and from a container recycling research organisation's published rate comparisons. Rates and coverage change, and several states have live proposals to raise deposits, so confirm before planning around any figure here.

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