CLYNK is a very cool recycling program they have here Portland, Maine, that makes redeeming bottles and cans super easy.

 

Most cans and bottles sold in Maine (and Oregon, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont) are tagged with a deposit when you buy them in the store — a nickel for most, $.15 for wine bottles. The old way of getting your money back was to drive to a redemption center and physically turn in each bottle and can. You'd usually be at the mercy of some bored underpaid employee and often stuck in a long line.

 

CLYNK changes all that. CLYNK customers can just drop redeemable off in a CLYNK bag at one of 22 Maine Hannaford grocery stores and run —the tagged bags are brought to a central facility and automatically processed. The money generated from the bottles and cans are credited to a customers account and is redeemable for cash at any time.

 

WCSH reports that CLYNK is boosting the rate of recycling for residents of Casco Bay islands and Frankly Green has heard that the program is looking to expand to Massachusetts, New York and Oregon.

 

Here's a video of a WCSH clip from earlier this year (when it was only in four stores) that shows how it all works.

 

 

It's a great greener way of doing things and I can't wait to see the program take off everywhere they land.