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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Iowa's bottle bill deposit law covers all carbonated and alcoholic beverages. We redeem any container that has IA 5¢ printed on it. 

Yes! 

No. Containers will be rejected if they still contain liquid, other foreign materials or are crushed to where they can't stand on their own or if the deposit information is not visible.

Yes, but they must be in cardboard boxes or plastic totes - we do not pay for glass in bags.

Non-redeemable cans

We can't pay you for aluminum cans that do not say IA 5¢, but we are glad to recycle them for you at no charge. Some examples of non-redeemable aluminum cans are:

  • Tea (Arizona, Peace Tea, etc)
  • Lemonade or other juices (Minute Maid, Mott's, etc)
  • Beers that are not sold in the state of Iowa (New Glarus, etc)

Non-redeemable plastic bottles

We also cannot accept plastic bottles that do not say IA 5¢. We do not have the ability to recycle non-redeemable plastic so please dispose of it in another way. Some examples of non-redeemable plastic bottles are:

  • Tea (Pure Leaf, Gold Peak, etc)
  • Non-carbonated water (Dasani, Aquafina, etc)
  • Lemonade or other juices (Minute Maid, Mott's, etc)

Non-redeemable glass bottles

Finally, we do not accept non-redeemable glass containers. Please recycle your non-redeemable glass at one of these locations instead. Examples of non-redeemable glass are:

  • Tea (Snapple, etc)
  • Non-carbonated water (Mountain Valley, etc)
  • Beers that are not sold in the state of Iowa (New Glarus, etc)
  • Food jars and bottles (pickle jars, soy sauce bottles, olive oil bottles, etc)

Please visit our Hours page to see the hours of operation for each location!



No, we will take as many containers as you can bring us. For especially large orders (more than 2,000 containers), let us know when you're planning on coming by emailing info@abccans.com. We'll make sure to be ready for you.


We have two locations:


Our AMES address is 5820 Lincoln Way, Suite 106, Ames IA 50014 


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Our ANKENY location is 1317 SW Ordnance Rd. Ankeny, IA 50023


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Step 1: Come for a visit. Plastic bottles and aluminum cans need to be in bags! It's extra helpful to use the bags we supply. For our employees' safety, glass must be separated into cardboard boxes or totes and will not be accepted in bags.


Step 2:  Count 'em up. We will count items individually or by using our can-o-meter. You can also let us know how many glass items and/or cans you have for redemption, and we'll double-check your count.


Step 3: Get Paid. We offer several payment options, including Venmo, cash pickup, and donation. We will let you know when you will receive your payment at drop-off. Cans over 240 will be counted on the spot. Larger drop-offs will be paid within two business days.



Bring your cans and plastic however is easiest for you, but glass bottles must be in cardboard boxes or plastic totes. For the safety of our sorters, we do not accept glass in bags.



If you choose to be paid via cash pickup, you have 30 calendar days to pick up your payment.


We reserve the right to deduct 25% or more from payment for orders that contain anything dangerous to our sorters (needles, human or animal waste, broken glass, etc)



Yes! Our can bags are 50 cents each, refundable upon return of the full bag, and our can boxes are $6 each.



No.

Yes! 50 milliliter "shooters" are covered by Iowa's bottle bill but exempt from the labeling requirement, so even though they don't say IA 5¢ on them, we do pay for them.

QUICK LINKS

Super clean building, excellent customer service and great communication.

I can't say enough positive things about this business.  We took $78 worth of cans and bottles and had a text and Venmo notification in less than 24 hours.  Never wasting time again begging for HyVee to fix their machines.   I am now a loyal customer to Ames Bottle & Can.


 - TINA


A red circle with the letter a and the letter b on it
ABC Cans

Ames Bottle & Can

Ankeny Bottle & Can

ABC Cans is Central Iowa's Redemption Center.  We are Bondurant, Alleman, Slater, Huxley Ankeny, Ames and Des Moines' favorite place to bring cans and bottles for redemption.

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