Recycling Oregon’s ten-cent redeemable beverage containers just got much easier for La Pine area residents and nonprofits, thanks to the arrival of a BottleDrop Express Green and Blue Bag drop location at Ray’s Food Place, located at 51537 U.S. 97.
The new BottleDrop Express site officially opened to the public on Thursday, November 3, becoming Central Oregon’s sixth Green and Blue Bag drop location.
“I’m excited that there will be a drop door in La Pine,” said House Republican Leader, Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson who represents the La Pine area in the State Legislature. “This is an important service residents will be able to utilize as they recycle and help keep the community pristine.”
Through the Green and Blue Bag programs, individuals (via Green Bags) and nonprofits (via Blue Bags) can conveniently redeem containers in bulk, placing redeemable metal, plastic, and glass beverage containers all in the same bags and dropping them off at any BottleDrop bag drop location in Oregon, instead of redeeming them one container at a time. Customers place unique QR code bag tag stickers onto their bags, which associate the contents of those bags with the customer’s BottleDrop account. Bags are counted and credited to customer accounts within seven days — often more quickly.
“The Green Bag program is an incredibly popular container redemption option for Oregonians,” said Eric Chambers, external relations director at the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC), which operates the BottleDrop network. “Convenient options and access points for consumers, like the new drop location in La Pine, help Oregon continue to achieve the highest beverage container redemption rate in the country.”
Consumer convenience has sparked rapid growth in the program. Last year, over 800,000 BottleDrop account holders dropped off more than 11.2 million Green and Blue Bags in Oregon. There are currently over 2,000 BottleDrop account holders located within ten miles of the new drop location in La Pine, who collectively dropped off nearly 20,000 bags of beverage containers to be redeemed and recycled in the past year, claiming more than $140,000 in OR ten-cent refunds.
“We are always looking for ways to add convenience and enhance the experience for our customers,” said Rocky Campbell, vice president of operations at C&K Market Inc., the parent company for Ray’s Food Place. “This new bag drop location make returning containers easier than ever for our customers, and it’s squarely in line with our corporate sustainability goals.”
Existing BottleDrop account holders can now use this new BottleDrop Express location just like they currently use the bag drop doors at the Redmond and Bend BottleDrop Redemption Centers, and the BottleDrop Express sites located in Bend (Bend Fred Meyer and Third Street Albertsons) and Sisters (Ray’s Food Place).
New customers can sign up for a BottleDrop account online, through the mobile app (search for “BottleDrop Account” in the App Store or on Google Play), or through the BottleDrop kiosk located at any bag drop location (including inside Ray’s Food Place). Green Bags are also now available for purchase at Ray’s Food Place (and at all bag drop locations), and customers can print their bag tag stickers at the store’s BottleDrop kiosk as well.
Area nonprofits and their supporters can also participate, supercharging their bottle and can fundraising drives through the Blue Bag Program. The Blue Bag program allows nonprofits to set up fundraising accounts with BottleDrop and distribute Blue Bags to their supporters. Just like the Green Bag program, fundraisers are given unique bag tag QR code stickers to place on their bags, which ensure that the funds from those containers are credited to the nonprofit’s BottleDrop account.
BottleDrop is operated by the OBRC, which introduced the bulk Green and Blue Bag redemption program in Oregon in 2010, as a convenient and efficient bottle and can recycling option. The program has grown each year since, with over 900,000 BottleDrop account holders and over 5,100 Oregon nonprofits currently participating in the program. Ray’s Food Place in La Pine is the 92nd bag drop location in BottleDrop’s statewide network.
How does BottleDrop’s Green Bag system work?
BottleDrop account holders purchase designated bags for a small fee and print bag tag stickers with QR codes linking their bags to their accounts at the kiosks located on site at all bag drop locations. Customers then fill the bags with redeemable bottles and cans and drop them off at any BottleDrop location statewide. BottleDrop will count the containers and credit the account within seven days. There are a number of convenient ways account holders can spend their redemption funds:
- Withdraw them for cash at Ray’s Food Place or at any BottleDrop kiosk;
- Get an extra 20 percent by using their funds to shop with store credit at participating retailers through the BottleDrop Plus program;
- Save for education by linking their BottleDrop Account with an Oregon College Savings Plan Account; or
- Donate to a charity of their choice through BottleDrop Give.
About BottleDrop and the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative
The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) is the industry steward of Oregon’s nationally recognized beverage container redemption system and the operator of the BottleDrop network. Headquartered in Clackamas, Oregon, OBRC is a statewide, not-for-profit cooperative, formed by beverage distributors to operate Oregon’s renowned Bottle Bill program. OBRC helps keep Oregon beautiful by providing outstanding services to partners, distributors, retailers and the public for the recovery, reuse and recycling of beverage containers. Through OBRC’s BottleDrop Redemption Centers and container pickup service for more than 2,000 retail partners, the co-op recycles around two billion beverage containers annually, protecting the Oregon we love, supporting the causes we cherish, and inspiring innovation beyond our borders — all without a penny of state funding.
