Instead of feeding returnable cans and bottles one at a time into a machine, Connecticut residents should be able to simply drop them off by the bagload to get back the redemption fee, says Shahil Kantesaria of West Hartford.
In partnership with Maine-based Clynk, Kantesaria intends to make that possible by introducing a technology-based return system that he bills as quicker and simpler than visiting the local supermarket bottle room or one of the state’s increasingly rare redemption centers.
“We’re beholden to the supply chains, but as long as everything goes smoothly we’re hoping by the end of the first quarter to have last least four or five boxes out to test,” Kantesaria said Wednesday. “There are a few different towns we’re looking at.”
The system would let people skip the routine of carrying bags of returnables back to the store where they bought them. Typically supermarkets or other large food retailers such as Walmart have machines with conveyor belts; the shopper stands in front, feeding in cans and bottles one at a time.
In Maine, Clynk for years has had a partnership with the Hannaford’s grocery store chain that does away with those machines and uses a so-called bag drop system.
More than two dozen Hannaford’s locations in Maine and upstate New York have installed large Clynk boxes — about the size of a clothing donation bin — either inside or outside the building, and customers drop off enormous plastic bags holding their returnables.
The customers never unload or sort the bags; instead, they’re free to shop or to simply leave. Within a few days, Clynk credits their account for the bottles and cans they’ve dropped off; the rate in Maine is 15 cents for alcohol or wine bottes, and five cents for beer, soda or water containers.
Importantly, each bag has a QR code that identifies who dropped it off. Consumers get a supply of those QR code labels when they set up a Clynk account and then purchase a box of Clynk bags.
Clynk sends a truck around periodically to empty out the bins and haul the bags to a processing center. When the bottles and can are separated and counted, Clynk scans each QR code and credits each consumer with what was inside their bag.
The company says it pays consumers the same rate as they’d get from supermarket machines. For authorized returns in Connecticut, that means 10 cents apiece for deposit cans and bottles.
But in Maine, it comes in store credit at Hannaford’s rather than cash. Kantesaria expects the early rollout phase in Connecticut would also pay in credit toward whichever store hosts the dropoff bins, but said that in the future options including Venmo and the consumer’s bank account could be added.
“In Phase 1, the boxes would be at a major retailer. After that, we’re hoping we could make our way into other stores, especially smaller ones in rural areas,” he said. “On the four- to five-year road map, we’d be all through the state from north to south, east to west.”
Kantesaria’s company, RecyclX, plans to process the can and bottles out of leased space in a warehouse on Bristol’s Wooster Court. The location is in the Forestville section not far from Plainville.
In a zoning application, RecyclX described the operation as a wholesale redemption center that won’t be open to the public; it projected as many as 20 employees and truck traffic delivering bagged returnables from other area towns.
“At this location the bottles will be segregated by manufacturer and and packaged for the manufacturers to pick up on a regular basis,” according to the zoning form. The city’s planning and zoning commission has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 12.
Several online consumer forums in Maine give Clynk relatively high marks, especially for convenience. A few customers have complained of being shorted on their credits; the company responded that most discrepancies occur because people mistakenly put non-returnable containers in with their redeemables. As in Connecticut, unauthorized containers aren’t accepted either by supermarket bottle rooms or by independent redemption centers.
And a few Maine users have balked at the cost of the Clynk bags: They run $2.50 for a box of 10. But Clynk reports that the average users puts 68 containers in each bag; in Connecticut, that would be worth $6.80 in redemption payments. The company also contends that even though there’s a 20-pound weight limit per bag, they can easily accommodate more than 68 cans and bottles.
