What Makes Us CLYNK?

We started in Maine – the nation’s third Bottle Bill state – where we saw an opportunity to launch a modern way for consumers to recycle. Today, we believe we’ve reached a new milestone in our history by scaling a bottle redemption platform that is unique in the world.

We’re Changing Recycling Technology

We’re able to process millions of containers quickly and efficiently because of our unique bottle redemption and recycling platform. We’re the only company in the U.S. that can redeem beverage containers the way we do, and we are unique in our ability to enable customers to manage their deposits through a personal online account.

Today, our patented technology is used by Bottle Bill participants in three additional states (Iowa, New York, and Oregon), and in New Brunswick, Canada. We operate as CLYNK in Maine and upstate New York; elsewhere, our technology is white labeled.

We’re Changing Recycling

We’ve patented a bag drop platform that makes recycling easy, while providing key data and measurable financial benefits to retailers, beverage manufacturers and recyclers. We’ve designed a system that is the fastest, smartest, and most efficient in the United States.

We aim to dramatically reduce beverage container waste in the communities we serve. We also understand that our success isn’t just enhanced by our environmental commitment – it’s the result. That’s why we’re still dedicating our resources to improving the container recycling process.

We’re Changing Expectations

By making the bottle return process an effortless one-stop-shop, we encourage millions of consumers to participate. From clean and safe drop-off locations to personalized environmental impact statistics based on an individual’s recycling activity to facilitating charitable giving through our CLYNK to Give platform, we are vastly improving how Americans recycle and redeem their beverage containers.

We started CLYNK with a firm conviction that we could do well by doing good, and we’ve discovered that our conviction was as essential as it was true.

The CLYNK Recycling Cycle

Our unique approach to recycling works wonders for everybody we serve.

Think of it like this:

When we get better at recycling…

We return higher-quality sorted materials to beverage manufacturers…

Beverage manufacturers recover higher returns for quality bulk recyclables…

Cleaner recycled materials can be recycled into bottles and cans again…

There’s less waste….

There’s less pollution…

Everyone (and everything) is healthier and happier…

People see the benefits of recycling…

Making them more likely to recycle (especially if it’s easy)

Retailers will see the marketing value in facilitating easy recycling…

Encouraging them to seek the best recycling partners…

So CLYNK can earn more business and do more good…

And show other businesses how to do well by doing good…

Mission: Possible

At CLYNK, it’s our mission to make recycling so easy and convenient that everyone is eager to participate – while simultaneously eliminating the “Bottle Bill friction” manufacturers and retailers dread. In the process of attaining those goals, we’ve also attained scale and momentum that we’re eager to grow. Here’s a short list of our progress:

90%

Redemption Rate

In Oregon, services powered by CLYNK technology have grown by double-digits annually since their introduction. With CLYNK’s technology, Oregon achieved a 90% redemption rate – the highest in the United States.

150

Employees

CLYNK has grown from a small, shoestring business to 150 employees.

Clean

Food Grade

CLYNK’s documented container handling protocols set the standard for the industry, ultimately increasing our ability to reliably process and produce food-grade recyclables – at scale.

CLYNK continues to automate and streamline return, redemption and processing activities in our ongoing effort to improve our service and offerings. By breaking down the barriers to bottle redemption, we can encourage more individuals to recycle reusable materials, saving energy and reducing pollution in our local environments. But that’s not enough. We aim to broaden the scope of CLYNK’s technology solutions to enable non-regulated forms of container recycling and eventually enable consumer recycling beyond containers.

What Our Customers Say About Us

“CLYNK makes it easy, and I like that I can control when I get my money back. It’s like a savings account in some ways.”

“How easy: collect bottles in a bag, bring to station at the grocery, no waiting in line for machines, or waiting for a machine to be emptied.”

“I appreciate that you’ve essentially gamified recycling.”

“Great idea for business, environment, and everyone seems to win. This is a simple concept for consumers, suppliers, and producers that picks up all the pieces and the end product is returning the cash back so it can be spent over and over.”

– Barry Craig, Portland, ME