Janet Fairfield and her husband, Gary have been in the bottle redemption business for almost 30 years. Initially the owners of G&J Bottle Redemption, the couple maintained locations in Wiscasset and Boothbay until 2018 when health problems and other factors forced them to close. They would take over Newcastle’s Bonus Redemption from Ken and Lisa York later that same year.

Four years later, Bonus Redemption is one of the few local centers left as facilities close statewide due to staff shortages and stress on already small profits from inflation and minimum wage increases. Forty redemption centers licensed by the state have shut down in the last two years alone, according to the Portland Press Herald.

“We can’t handle it all. This time of year we get pretty buried. I would welcome somebody opening up,” said Gary Fairfield. Their team of five currently sorts through 30,000 to 40,000 bottles a day. 

In the absence of local centers, many are turning to CLYNK redemption machines in their local grocery stores. Hannaford’s Assistant Store Manager David Joy reported that use of the machines went up after the Boothbay and Wiscasset redemption facilities closed. While Joy hasn’t seen any drastic wait times for customers, the store has had to close the bottle room on several occasions because it’s overfilled. 

“A lot of it is the way redemption centers get paid, it's fixed by the legislature, by so much per can,” said Scott Wilson of Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The latest price increase was in 2018 which added a half-cent or penny depending on bottle type. The previous raise had been about a decade earlier. 

Wilson explained that because the pay rate is determined by volume of cans and not inflation or cost of living, the typically small profit margins aren't strong incentives for redemption centers to stay open. Two facilities have closed in Augusta in the last month, he says. This problem is also common in areas like the Boothbay region where it is more profitable to operate a tourist-based shop.

The DEP has also found that many centers are struggling to find staff due to the ongoing shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The steady increase of the minimum wage, which is up to $12.75 an hour, has also made it unaffordable for centers to hire employees.

“With what you make, you can't afford to hire more people. Then you're just cutting your own cell. That's half the problem with this business,” explained Gary Fairfield. The Fairfields also reported issues retaining the employees they did hire. 

The lack of affordable labor is also contributing to another issue. According to Wilson, the rise of THC and CBD beverages and other specialty drinks are requiring more labor to sort. Unlike products from big companies such as Coca-Cola that can be sorted together, these specialty beverages often can’t be put into co-mingling groups. “Every time you have to touch a bottle and have its own sort it costs more money at a redemption center. Just the labor of finding out where it goes.”

Businesses have to register their products so the state can decide how they will be redeemed. However, sometimes this process doesn’t happen until a product is already on the shelf, according to Janet Fairfield. This means that she either has to throw the bottle away or hold on to it until more accumulate, which can be time-consuming depending on how many bottles are required before they can be turned in. “[If] we don't have a place for that product to go, I can't pay somebody for it,” she said.

There have been local efforts to address the lack of redemption centers. In 2019, Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District Manager Steve Lewis was seeking to rent equipment designed for accepting plastic, aluminum and glass containers to alleviate the station’s mounting redeemables. By law, these machines are only available to redemption centers open to the public. Lewis hoped to change the law to allow the district access to these machines but was ultimately shot down. 

“I get calls probably five or 10 times a week asking if we give out money [for bottles],” said Lewis. “We're just getting people dropping them off here so they don't throw them away.”

The district currently drives one to two loads a week to a redemption center in Pittston.  This equates to about $25,000 worth of bottles a year. Lewis said the situation has improved within the station and they are no longer overwhelmed with redeemables but he still believes there is a need for a local center. “It's just a matter of where and who will do it.”

There is no clear solution to Maine’s redemption center problem, but action may be on the horizon with the state legislature poised to discuss the issue next session, according to Wilson. In the meantime, the Fairfields encourage people with large loads to drop them off so they can be processed over a couple of days to cut down on personal wait-time.  

Bonus Redemption is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m-3:30 p.m, and every 1st and 3rd Saturday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

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