Yes. Other than the price an account holder pays for CLYNK bags – which are sold at cost by Hannaford – you pay nothing for our service. The beverage manufacturers and our grocery partners, like Hannaford, pay the cost of CLYNK. A box of 10 CLYNK bags costs $2.49 plus tax, and each 30-gallon bag can hold approximately 20 pounds of empty containers.
You can print a new supply of bag tags using your CLYNK card and PIN # at the lime green and white CLYNK kiosk found near the front end of participating Hannaford stores. Search here to find your nearest CLYNK kiosk.
The bag tag contains your customer account information. Our system requires that every container we process must be associated with a bag tag. This, in turn, ensures every single redeemable container is credited to an account that pays a customer. We built the system to physically prohibit the processing of a container without a customer account as a safeguard against fraud. Put simply, CLYNK and our employees cannot “take” for our own benefit containers that rightly belong to you. If the bag tag has been lost or separated from the containers, we process the containers into a single master “lost and found” account that we then use to give missing container credits to customers. This closed-loop keeps customer deposits with our customers.
For the good of the environment, and for the safety of CLYNK staff members who process returns, we can only accept recyclables in CLYNK-brand bags. Our bags are 100% recyclable, which means they won’t end up in a landfill. Right now, they are used to make durable, long-lasting replacement railroad ties. The bags are also semi-transparent, which means our staff members can see inside and avoid the risk of injury from broken containers or nonrecyclable waste. We also ask customers not to double-bag their CLYNK containers. Double bagging requires additional handling and slows the process.
With each new account signup, the first box of 10 CLYNK bags is free. Your voucher for the free box is included in your signup kit, which is mailed to your house. If you sign up for CLYNK at a kiosk, you’ll receive your voucher at that time, which you can redeem at Hannaford customer service or a register. Additional boxes of CLYNK bags can be purchased at Hannaford and are sold at their cost. The current price is $2.49 (plus tax) for a box of 10 bags.
Check out our blog about our unique CLYNK bags!
With each new account signup, the first box of 10 CLYNK bags is free. If you signed up online, your voucher will be included in the Welcome Kit which is mailed to your house within 2 to 4 days of signing up. When you are ready to pick up your bags, go to a participating Hannaford where you can redeem the voucher at customer service or a register.
If you sign up for CLYNK at a kiosk, you’ll receive your voucher at that time, which you can redeem at Hannaford customer service or a register.
Hannaford supports CLYNK’s services for its customers and therefore, there is no cost to you, other than the bags which can be purchased at their cost. No profit is made from the bags. A box of 10 CLYNK bags costs $2.49 plus tax, and each 30-gallon bag can hold approximately 20 pounds of empty beverage containers – that’s equivalent to the weight of two large bags of potatoes. For more information about how many containers you can CLYNK, click here.
When you scan and drop your CLYNK bag at a CLYNK drop location, your bag – and its contents – are automatically linked to your account by the information on your bag tag. That’s why it’s so important that you put a tag on each bag and scan each tag when you drop. We then transport that bag to our processing facility, where it’s scanned again before its contents are processed. Our high-speed equipment scans the barcodes on each container, registers whether the container is redeemable, and then your account is credited for the deposit on each redeemable can and bottle we attribute to you.
A few simple steps will go a long way toward ensuring you receive credit for every container you return:
If there’s a rip in the bag or it contains broken glass, please re-bag your containers before dropping the bag off with CLYNK. Please try to avoid double-bagging them. Double-bagging requires additional handling and slows the process.
Your CLYNK bag should include only plastic, aluminum, or glass beverage containers on which deposits were paid during purchase. Containers must be redeemed in the same state in which they were purchased because that is where the deposit was paid. To clarify, it is against the law to redeem containers purchased out of state, even if that state has its own bottle bill and deposits (for example, one may not redeem containers in Maine that were purchased in New Hampshire or Massachusetts). This requirement exists for two reasons: (1) because deposit amounts vary by state, and (2) because the deposits paid at retail are often collected by local distributors who do not operate in multiple states. So, asking a New York distributor to reimburse you for a deposit you paid to a Massachusetts distributor penalizes the New York distributor who is not holding your deposit and would allow the Massachusetts distributor to ultimately make money off your hard-earned nickel.
To see a full list of eligible containers in your state’s Bottle Bill, please visit http://www.bottlebill.org.
They absolutely are. In fact, we prefer that you leave caps on your containers.
Please don’t crush your cans or bottles. If you do, and the barcode is damaged or obscured in the process, or the label falls off, we’ll be unable to credit your account for the return. We will still recycle the container, but you’ll miss out on your deposit.
CLYNK bags are designed to hold no more than 20 pounds of empty redeemable beverage containers. That’s equivalent to two large bags of potatoes or a large bowling ball! CLYNKers put an average of 68 containers per bag, but they certainly can handle more. Here’s additional guidance to help you CLYNK successfully.
To help limit the weight of the bag’s contents – and to provide a cushion to prevent glass breakage – we recommend that you mix glass, plastic, and aluminum containers in each bag. Be sure to leave enough room to tie off the top with a strong knot. Remember: your bags are traveling from your car to the drop center, then to a CLYNK truck, and eventually to our processing plant. We want to ensure that all your containers stay securely in your bag prior to processing.
We also ask customers not to double-bag their CLYNK containers. Double bagging requires additional handling and slows the process. And finally, during the months of July through September (our high season) we ask that customers drop no more than 5 bags at a time.
For Maine Customers Only: CLYNK does accept Smiling Hill Farm bottles though they are not included in the Bottle Bill. Smiling Hill Farm bottles have a thin structure and tend to break easily. Please drop no more than six Smiling Hill Farm bottles per bag and pad the bag with aluminum and plastic containers; otherwise, they will not make the trip intact. Customers may also choose to bring their Smiling Hill bottles directly to Smiling Hill Farms to reclaim their deposits
CLYNK and Hannaford request that customers drop no more than 3 bags per visit at a single CLYNK drop location. This limit helps to ensure that drop locations don’t fill up before CLYNK can service them, and allows us to serve all CLYNK customers quickly, conveniently and efficiently. If you run a commercial business or large organization, or are holding a bottle drive and have more than 10 bags at a time to drop, please contact our Customer Support team toll free at (866) 883-4113 so we can to ensure your bags will result in full credit.
Please remember to scan each bag’s tag so we know when you’ve dropped bags. Not only does this allow us to keep track of how full a bottle room or box is but it also let’s us know the number of bags you’ve dropped and allows us to track it to our Plants.