Green Bag Drop Options
Have you ever wondered what happens to your Green Bags after you drop them off?
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.
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.
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.
