Oregon City Redemption Center: closed Nov 18 – 22 (Mon – Fri) for handcounts and self-serve returns.

From 8am to 6pm on these days, BottleDrop staff will be on-site/
in the parking lot to facilitate customers dropping Green and Blue Bags.

Green Bag Drop Options

Have you ever wondered what happens to your Green Bags after you drop them off?

Logo Shape

Bags dropped at full-service BottleDrop Redemption Centers are counted, sorted and processed on site. Follow the illustrations below to see how bags dropped at retail locations take their own unique journey to become high-quality recycled materials – and money in your pocket!

 

WATCH THE JOURNEY

The journey begins here.

You can return your tied and tagged Green Bag at any bag drop door in Oregon. From Ontario to Warrenton, Ashland to Portland, and many cities in between, you’ll find a drop door waiting for your bags.

You drop off. We pick up.

The bags are then picked up by one of our drivers. Our statewide fleet picks up millions of bags each year.

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Processing and crediting your BottleDrop account usually happens within a couple of days after you drop your bag but can take up to seven days during busy times.

To the processing plant!

Green Bags are delivered to one of five processing plants across the state. OBRC’s specially trained plant crews and advanced technology take it from here.

Smart technology counts.

The containers from each Green Bag are emptied into their own conveyor bay to be counted by OBRC’s patented Smart Count AI, which uses image recognition, scanners, cameras and artificial intelligence.

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Our patented Smart Count AI system, developed at OBRC, is extremely accurate and is continuously learning, as billions of containers are counted and credited through the devices.

The bag tag is key!

The unique QR code on your bag tag is scanned to link your containers to your specific BottleDrop account. Always remember to put a bag tag sticker on each of your Green Bags!

Real-time refunds.

As your containers are counted, the refund value is credited to your account in real time. Once fully counted, the belt advances and your containers continue their journey to be recycled.

Separating by material type.

OBRC’s system sorts containers by material type. With over 50 years of experience and billions of containers processed annually, our mechanized equipment has been time-tested and fine-tuned, down to the last bottle cap.

Compacted and ready for recycling.

After being compacted and processed, containers are ready to be recycled into Grade-A materials, including new bottles and cans. All recycling happens in the U.S., with all plastic being recycled right here in Oregon. The Green Bags are also recycled.

Grade-A recycling. A-plus efficiency.

PLASTIC
Plastic beverage containers are sent to ORPET, a plastic recycling facility in St. Helens, Oregon, co-owned by OBRC. Here, they are processed into a Grade-A rPET flake, the recycled content for new products, including bottles.

METAL
OBRC sends aluminum it recovers to domestic smelting facilities, where it is recycled into sheet aluminum that can be used to create new beverage containers.

GLASS
Glass returned through OBRC goes to bottle manufacturing facilities in the West to be processed into raw material for new glass bottles.

GREEN AND BLUE BAGS
Not only are the bags used in OBRC’s system made from post-consumer recycled content, but they are also recovered during processing and recycled.

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Glass bottles from BottleDrop’s Refillable Bottle program, the only statewide refillable bottle program in the U.S., can be washed and reused up to 25 times before being recycled.
Graphic showing the journey of a Green Bag

WANT TO SEE THIS JOUNEY ALL AT ONCE?

 

Download the Game Board

Find Your Nearest Green Bag Drop Location

Visit the BottleDrop Location Finder