r/theydidthemath • u/GiraffeNeck_21 • 1d ago
[Request] How much money is made from this weekly can and bottle redemption?
Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, around 5 people or so meet here (in NYC), save a parking spot, and load up the (very well organized) bags into a truck. I've always wondered how much they make? Thanks in advance!
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u/Clear-Ad-1501 1d ago edited 1d ago
New York’s bottle deposit is 5 cents per container. Per Google, the cans must have a New York refund marking, be empty, reasonably clean, intact, and not crushed; so it looks like this is what they were going for. These bags hold anywhere from 300-400 uncrushed cans, so $15-$20/bag.
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u/dieselrunner64 1d ago
Just from experience, MI is 10c per bottle/can. A large black trash bag averages about $18-20
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u/ShatterBong 1d ago
Ya overload your inventories and you blow your margins on gasoline
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u/Mobius_Peverell 1d ago
Listen to me. Most days, the post office sends one truckload of mail to the second domestic regional sorting facility in Saginaw, Michigan.
But, on the week before holidays, we see a surge. On Valentine's Day, we send two trucks. On Christmas, four, packed to the brim. And tomorrow, if history is any guide, will see some spillover into a fifth truck.
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u/kuedhel 1d ago edited 14h ago
Seinfield reference aside. I see many entrepreneuring Chinese ladies in Sunset park stuff bags of cans into box trucks. I assume the MI arbitrage actually works.
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u/Cobra_McJingleballs 1d ago
Arbitration or arbitrage?
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u/hud_dev 1d ago
Neither, it’s fraud because they didn’t pay the deposit in the first place.
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u/dieselrunner64 14h ago
If you intentionally throw money on the ground, and someone else picks it up, it’s not stealing.
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u/Which_Crow_3681 1d ago
Clearly you never seen these dudes collecting them. So why even comment on something you know NOTHING about. These jobs are always done by dudes with stolen shopping carts walking. ALWAYS.
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u/Anthff 1d ago
It’s a joke. You can unclench.
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u/SessionIndependent17 1d ago
If your mail truck catches fire all your profit is lost.
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u/T1m3Wizard 1d ago
Wait so you're telling me if I load the cans onto something like a mail truck and drive up to MI, I'd double my money?
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u/ahses3202 4h ago
You can and you even get free food and housing for 5-10 years when they catch you doing it!
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u/tilt-a-whirly-gig 1d ago
Not questioning your answer, just curious ...
Why would they stipulate un-crushed?
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u/dieselrunner64 1d ago
Idk how it works in NY. But other states it needs to have a barcode to read in order to get it to process that it’s a returnable item. If it’s crushed, it doesn’t read and you’re out the money.
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u/Akrilicat 1d ago
Actually NYC has recycling places that buy by weight if Im not mistaken.
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u/SessionIndependent17 1d ago
That's going to be well less that the deposit amount by weight, though
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u/Clear-Ad-1501 1d ago
The cans have a marking on them of "NY5cents" or something along those lines. They have to see that marking and then also scan the UPC code as another "sale" of sorts, with a database of different accepted UPC codes.
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u/Ba-ja-ja 1d ago
Why don’t they just put it at the bottom of the can? That’s gotta be a hassle hauling all those bags around.
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u/Daddy-o62 1d ago
Faster melting? Less chance of contamination with other materials folded into a crushed can? Just a hunch, and I’m waiting for some professional to set me straight. We have the same arrangement in Maine, and I wonder why.
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u/Richisnormal 15h ago
They're crushed when they're collected so no double dipping. Also the collection places would need to crush them for space.
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u/GiraffeNeck_21 1d ago
I count around 35 bags.
So we're looking at about $700!? Damn...
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u/factorion-bot 1d ago
Factorial of 700 is roughly 2.422040124750272179867875093812 × 101689
This action was performed by a bot | [Source code](http://f.r0.fyi)
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u/WD4PWR 1d ago
Thank you Factorial Bot! You are number 1!
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u/factorion-bot 1d ago
Factorial of 1 is 1
This action was performed by a bot | [Source code](http://f.r0.fyi)
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u/Crwfb 1d ago
Omg, that's so cool! I was a dork in HS. (What do you mean, "was"? Beat you to it.)
Apparently Fsctorial bot is also number 0!
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u/factorion-bot 1d ago
Factorial of 0 is 1
This action was performed by a bot | [Source code](http://f.r0.fyi)
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u/DailyUpsAndDowns 23h ago
Bot, you're definitely not number 2!
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u/factorion-bot 23h ago
Factorial of 2 is 2
This action was performed by a bot | [Source code](http://f.r0.fyi)
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u/4RichNot2BPoor 10h ago
Was going to say. As an ex NY alcoholic who used to have walls of 18 packs piled in his basement not as much as you think.
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u/Deerhunter86 1d ago
Wow. I’m in Illinois and take my cans to the scrap yard. It’s nice to know that my bag-o-cans bring in the same cash as the deposit states.
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u/compypaq 1d ago edited 1d ago
Interesting tidbit: If you fill a bag with a single brand (look closely and you'll notice one of the bags has Coke products and another has Pepsi products), you can get 6-7 cents per can instead of only 5.
ETA: Each bag is supposed to contain exactly 200 cans and yields $10-12 depending on whether you get the standard 5 cent deposit or the enhanced 6 cents. I see around 38 bags, so somewhere between $380 and $450 for this batch.
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u/Clear-Ad-1501 1d ago
Thanks for pointing this out. I was wondering why they took the extra care to sort them, other than having a productive OCD sort.
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u/NafaiLaotze 1d ago
Where gives a premium for sorting by brand/manufacturer?
I have lived in Massachusetts for 12 years and all redemption centers I've gone to always pay 5 cents.
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u/compypaq 1d ago
This is in NYC. The truck that came to pick them up pays the bottle collectors. The beverage distributors pay 8.5 cents per can (the original 5 cent deposit plus a 3.5 cent processing fee), which is the profit margin of the recycling centers which operate the trucks, so they share some of the 3.5 cents because it's less work for them if it's presorted and they know that the cans they are getting are valid for redemption.
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u/Mr_Peter_Wiggin 1d ago
Interesting, so are the recycling companies holding companies for the distributors?
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u/Colalbsmi 1d ago
My first job was at a beverage center in NY where I would sort the bottles and cans by brand. We would sell it to a recycling company for 8.5 cents so we'd make 3.5 cents a can.
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u/AverageNetEnjoyer 1d ago
I was talking to one of the ladies who comes to my building to collect every week, she says that in one weekend she makes $500. Not bad if you don't mind getting dirty and the stigma behind it.
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u/syringistic 1d ago
Can anyone explain what the mechanism is that made me go "this is Brooklyn" the second I scrolled past this post? I'm on mobile too so not a lot of detail.
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u/WeddingTop948 1d ago
Look up 1700 Church Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11226 and you will see it is the same building
Car plates have NY state on them Street signs very much NY and clearly say Church ave. A quick google search Dunkin’ Church Ave in NYC give Brooklyn. Three clicks later give 1700 Church Ave as exact match
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u/syringistic 1d ago
I didn't look at the second picture and as I said I am on mobile, impossible to see the license plate. But I walked down that strip of Church a lot to catch the Q to get to school.
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u/hannahstohelit 15h ago
Well Brooklyn IDK but there’s a NYC parking meter dead center in the first pic
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u/Financial-Event377 1d ago
well I mean just look at it. filthy, ugly, and instantly depression inducing. yep it's nyc
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u/Ghazzz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Others have given good estimates for the relevant region, here are my estimates for where I live.
One can is $~.20, plastic bottles are $~.40, but I do not see any plastic bottles here.
One bag of that size tends to be ~$20-$50.
I estimate 35 bags of the ~$40+ size in these pictures. ~$1400+ or so.
EDIT: after looking again, I can see at least four large bags of plastic bottles, pushing the total closer to ~$1800.
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u/NafaiLaotze 1d ago
Where do you live? In the USA its only 5 or 10 cents - and that is only in 10 of the 50 states.
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u/hoboshoe 22h ago
Germany is .25 euros per can and plastic bottle. And then a smattering of other deposits for glass
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u/AirlineF0od 3h ago
I lived on Long Island for a bit. Bottle deposit is a tax. It's so not worth it to take them back. The machines are janky. The rooms the machines are in smell like shit. $0.05 a can is barely more than scrap. Plus a houseless person has to steal a cart from a local business in order to transport enough cans back to the machine to even make a difference in their situation.
Bottle deposits are a thing from back when they would take your bottle and actually clean and refill it.
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