Best Bottle Depots?

[Northendzone]

to me a good bottle depot is one where there is no line up - if they make a mistake counting and are off by a few here and there it is maybe a dollar each time - it does nto seem to me like it is that big of a deal to me - but i suppose over a lifetime we could be talking millions when you include potential opportunity and time value costs.......

i should note that I have one recycling bin and one garbage can for recycling - when they are full I take them in and recover my $12 or so dollars. i am not like those guys that have a pick up truck full of empties........

I wish they would quit charging for milk jugs, they take up a lot of space in the money recycling big - i'd put my milk jugs in my blue bine.......

i think you need to develop a ranked checklist of what is important to you in a bottle depot, and go and vist one in your target area and shortlist some potential candidates and then visit them to determine if they really suit your specific needs.

Personally if I owned a bottle depot, I'd build a car wash beside it to recover all of the monies I have paid out

[The Yen Man]

The cleanest one I've gone to is the one near Coventry Hills. It's the one that you turn into from Country Hills right before you hit Deerfoot Trail. I like it because it's so far out with no buses, there's no way bums would be able to have access to it, so it's pretty clean for a Bottle Depot.

[ma-skis.com]

+1 for the VRRI, they get work, they get money, they get help for a good building.

why give it to bums who drink when you can give it to people who will use it for positive life programs.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Byrns

I go to Crowfoot as well. No idea how accurate they are, but I like being able to dump out 3-4 orange trash bags and they do all the work.

Crowfoot has one of the worst reputations for being inaccurate. They consistently miscount or ring in totals that don't match what is on the sheet and short you money wherever they can. I've never gotten more then $40 bringing in bottles and I brought the same amount in to the one on Spy Hill and got $60.

I just go to Spy Hill now. Quick service, no sorting, don't even have to take the lids off and they count accurately. I don't think I've waited more then 10 minutes and that was the Sunday after a long weekend.

[KelVarnsen]

I miss SteveToms.

[Nufy]

I usually save mine for the Scouts...

[Trojan97]

I ended up going to one today just across McLeod by Chinook Mall, kind of by the peelers. They have a computerized system that has a screen at each counter which allows you to keep track as they input your return into the computer. I thought that was kind of cool, I've never seen anything like that at a bottle depot before.

Nonetheless, I'd recommend it to anyone in the SW looking for an alternative. We've been returning bottles to the one on 37th for years and they're a bunch of scam artists. I don't mind getting shortchanged by a few bucks here and there but it's unacceptable to consistently be 10-15 dollars off.

[tete]

The bottle depot on 10th Ave and 6th St SW also has a computerized system. It's hardly worth it for us to cash them in - we're in a condo so our space is rather limited for storage. I'm tempted to start taking a bag of cans every time I go for a walk and drop them in random places for the collectors to pick up.

[MRCboicgy]

I go down to Okotoks.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by tete

The bottle depot on 10th Ave and 6th St SW also has a computerized system. It's hardly worth it for us to cash them in - we're in a condo so our space is rather limited for storage. I'm tempted to start taking a bag of cans every time I go for a walk and drop them in random places for the collectors to pick up.

Give into temptation and do it, no matter where you are in this city a homeless person or an elderly Asian couple will pick them up.

There is a dirty fellow around the Signal Hill/West Hills shopping area who has made a career out of picking up every loose bottle and can there. He seems to be up at the crack of dawn most mornings, pushing his Zellers shopping cart all over.

[saskflames69]

Over here, we have Sarcan and they will not accept your unsorted bottles and cans. It's a pain in the ass, the building reeks of Mystery Juice, but it's an easy $50. But, you people in Calgary do not realize just how easy you have it. Just dump your unsorted recyclables and they do the work? Blasphemer!

[JonDuke]

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but, depending on how deep NW you are, I would suggest the depot in Spyhill on 112 ave NW. Near the WalMart by Royal Oak.

Not nearly as busy as the one in Crowfoot or Brentwood and Ive never had a problem there whatsoever

[Rathji]

I know you were not asking about the SE but the one behind the Home Depot on 130th Ave is pretty good. They have the screens so you know the count is reasonably good. For the first few times I would count each set of 40 or whatever before they enter it in and never did I detect anything that I suspected was miscounted. Now I just hang out and watch them do it.