Every year, billions of deposit bottles and cans never make it back to a redemption center. They end up in curbside bins, back alleys, roadside ditches — and eventually, landfills. Most people don’t think twice about tossing an empty. It feels harmless. One can, one bottle, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is this: New York State’s bottle deposit system was designed so that empties never reach a landfill in the first place. Every time someone skips the return, that system breaks — and the consequences quietly pile up in communities just like yours.

Let’s talk about what actually happens — from the moment a can lands in a landfill to the long-term cost it creates for the environment around Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Kingston, and every Upstate New York town in between.

The Bottle Bill Was Built to Keep Empties Out of Landfills

New York’s Bottle Bill — one of the oldest and most effective deposit laws in the country — puts a 5-cent refundable deposit on eligible beverage containers. The idea is simple: give people a financial reason to return the container instead of throwing it away.

And it works. States with deposit laws consistently see higher container recovery rates than those without them. New York’s program has kept hundreds of billions of bottles and cans out of landfills since it launched in 1983.

But the system only works when people actually use it. When empties go unreturned, the whole loop breaks — and what gets left behind is a slow-building environmental problem.

What Happens When a Can Goes to the Landfill Instead?

When an aluminum can ends up in a landfill rather than a redemption center, the consequences are bigger than most people realize. Here’s what actually unfolds:

Aluminum takes 80 to 200 years to decompose in a landfill. It doesn’t simply disappear.
Producing new aluminum from raw bauxite ore uses roughly 95% more energy than recycling existing aluminum. Every unreturned can means more mining, more smelting, more emissions.
Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into surrounding soil and groundwater as they slowly break down over hundreds of years.
Glass, while technically inert, takes up valuable landfill space that cannot be recovered once it’s buried.
Landfills themselves produce methane — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide — as buried waste decomposes.

Multiply one can by the millions of unreturned containers in New York State each year. The scale of what ends up buried — and what that burial costs the environment — becomes a very different conversation.

Landfill Capacity Is Not Unlimited — And Upstate NY Feels That Pressure

Here’s something that rarely gets mentioned in conversations about recycling: landfills fill up. And when they do, communities face some ugly choices — ship waste out of state at massive cost, open new landfills near residential areas, or scramble for alternatives.

New York has been grappling with landfill capacity issues for decades. Upstate communities like Greene County, Montgomery County, Rensselaer County, and Ulster County all sit within regions that are directly affected by where waste goes — and how fast existing sites fill up.

Every bottle returned to a redemption center is one less piece of material competing for that space. It sounds small. At scale, it genuinely is not.

The Roadside and Waterway Problem: It’s Closer Than You Think

Not every unreturned bottle ends up in a landfill. A significant number end up somewhere even more visible — the shoulders of highways, the banks of the Hudson River, local streams, parks, and neighborhood streets.

Studies consistently show that deposit states have dramatically lower rates of beverage container litter than non-deposit states. When there’s a financial return attached to a bottle, people are far less likely to throw it out a window or leave it at a picnic site.

When that incentive is ignored — when people are aware of the deposit but simply don’t bother — litter rates creep back up. The 5-cent deposit is only as powerful as the habit of returning.

The Blue Bin Isn’t the Same as a Redemption Center

A common misconception: if I put my bottles in the recycling bin, that’s basically the same thing as returning them. It isn’t — not even close.

Curbside recycling programs process materials for resale on commodity markets. The quality of material, sorting efficiency, and contamination rates all affect whether your bottle actually gets recycled or ends up in a landfill anyway. Some material from blue bins does get diverted to landfill — especially when contaminated or when recycling markets are unfavorable.

Deposit containers returned to a redemption center, on the other hand, go directly into a certified recycling stream. The material is clean, sorted, and valuable. It gets recycled. Full stop.

What You Can Do — Starting Today, Near You

The good news is that doing the right thing here is also completely in your financial interest. Every eligible container you return puts 5 cents back in your pocket. A household that returns consistently can easily recover $50 to $150 or more each year — just from empties that would have gone in the trash.

Unlimited Redemption operates 11 bottle and can redemption centers across Upstate New York, all located inside Beer Universe stores. No broken machines. No limits on how many you can bring in. Manual counting means accurate, transparent results every single time.

Locations include:

Albany (Central Ave)
Coxsackie (Route 9W)
Amsterdam (NY-30)
Kingston (Washington Ave)
Saugerties (Ulster Ave)
Schenectady – Kelton Ave
Schenectady – Union St
Troy – 5th Ave
Troy – Northern Dr
Troy – Hoosick St
Wynantskill (Main Ave)

Can’t make it in? Schedule a pickup. Unlimited Redemption’s pickup service covers a 20-mile radius from each location — you don’t need to haul a single bag yourself. It’s free, it’s easy, and it means your empties get into the right system every time.

The Bigger Picture — And Your Part In It

One can returned might not feel significant. But New York’s deposit system processes hundreds of millions of containers a year — because millions of people make the small choice, consistently.

Landfills don’t fill up overnight. Litter doesn’t accumulate in a single afternoon. Environmental damage compounds quietly, can by can, bottle by bottle, over years. And it gets reversed the same way — one return at a time.

The 5 cents is yours. The recycling benefit is everyone’s. And the nearest redemption center is probably closer than you think.

Ready to Return Your Empties? Visit any of Unlimited Redemption’s 11 Upstate NY locations inside Beer Universe stores — or schedule a free pickup at unlimitedredemption.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Does putting bottles in the blue bin count as recycling them the same way as a redemption center?

Not quite. Curbside blue bin recycling routes containers through municipal material recovery systems, where contamination, market conditions, and sorting quality can affect whether the material is actually recycled. When you return containers to a redemption center like Unlimited Redemption, those empties enter a certified, direct deposit recycling stream — meaning they are guaranteed to be recycled rather than potentially diverted to a landfill.

How long does aluminum actually take to break down in a landfill?

Aluminum can take anywhere from 80 to 200 years to decompose in a landfill environment. Unlike paper or organic material, it does not break down naturally in any meaningful timeframe. This means every unreturned can is effectively buried for generations — which is why keeping aluminum in the recycling loop through the deposit system is so much better than landfill disposal.

Does Unlimited Redemption offer pickup if I can’t bring my empties to a store?

Yes — and it’s one of the most convenient options available in the region. Unlimited Redemption provides a pickup service covering a 20-mile radius from each of its 11 Upstate New York locations. You simply schedule a pickup through unlimitedredemption.com, prepare your empties in bags, and the team comes to you. No loading the car, no driving across town — just your deposit money back without the hassle.

Are there limits on how many bottles or cans I can return at Unlimited Redemption at once?

No. Unlike some retail return machines that cap the number of containers per visit, Unlimited Redemption accepts high-volume returns — whether you’re a household returning a month’s worth of empties, a business clearing out post-event containers, or a community organization running a fundraiser. All containers are manually counted on the spot, ensuring an accurate count regardless of quantity.