Columbia Bottle Depots

Good place they have machines here about eight I think. 10 cents on every bottle and if you go during the weekdays you can beat the crowds.

My husband came in today and an employee named Roberta help. My husband. He is mentally challenged. She is very polite, very helpful and very kind. He is very helpful that she helped him and he says thank you

Automated! Kinda like putting money in a slot machine in a weird way only bottles instead. Only down side is the machines are a bit too high and it is hard on the arms after awhile. Pretty good experience overall.

This place closes early more than half of the time I try to come. They close at 5pm. I showed up today at 4: 38pm and the door is locked. What other kind of business can operate like this? None!

Awkward system here. The site should have more info about where to go and how it works as we sorted bottles ahead of time not realizing it wasn't necessary to do so. Giving the bad review mainly because it was unclear where to go when first arriving. We had a big bag and wanted to return as we could use that money for things we need and they had people working at a donation side coming up trying to take it from us. I tried to ask about where to go etc and it seems they didn't want to really listen and were just trying to take it from us. We need it for ourselves as we are disabled. I'm all for people donating but communication is key and the people working at the donation place were rude and didn't want to listen. They didn't direct us to the side where we could return it ourselves, we figured it out for ourselves when looking but the workers were not helpful at all and seemed mad that we weren't giving donations.

Very slow before you could drop off 10 flats of cans and more bottles Now you stand in line waiting for your turn to put each bottle and can into a small hole one at a time do not understand

The new European style bottle return (where you put one can/bottle in at a time) they've installed takes 3x as long as the previous system. If you wanted to get rid of employees, the drum style (where you dump your bottle onto a table and slowly drop them into a large drum that spins and sorts and takes them away on a conveyor belt) would have been much quicker and more efficient. So disappointed. I don't want your apologies! I want you to make returning bottles more efficient!

Hadn't been there for awhile but was shocked. You bring your bottles in hole that has a conveyor thing. When you are don't you get a print-out. Go to another machine scan the code and voila you get your money. So easy and I think pretty cool. But wondering how many people lost their jobs due to what they installed

Tried to drop off some bottles using Express Return It today (Saturday) at 3: 15 but they had a sign out that said it was closed. Stop quoting hours that you're open if you're not going to actually be open those hours.

I recently used the bottle depot on Breden Rd. First time I used the new automated system. I was not impressed with the layout. A few items were not accepted due to the size of the opening. I got my receipt but the machine for redeeming cash was not working so had to line up again. In the meantime the line up for assistance was almost out the door. Had to bring some stuff back home.

I really appreciate the updated system where you place your returns into an automated machine that then gives you your payout. Great job guys!

Return It Express is never open. Might as well just return empties to the Liquor Store. Now you stand there loading your empties one at a time into a conveyer belt.

Wear a mask or be discriminated against.the staff refuse to listen.some people are medically exempt, but they refuse to listen. MASKholes.

I have had difficulties with this depot's express return it. The first time we used the express return it, it took about two weeks for our bottles to be counted and our account credited. The second time we used it, we just never received a credit at all. We returned two large bags on September 1 and still have no received a credit.

Always a clean, orderly environment. The automated system takes the process down from an hour to 10 minutes, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful.

My first time with self recycling. A cool experience but the registers were down. A great location that I will go back to again.

Stopped in today to try the new self service automated system. Was in and out in ten minutes. Just popped each container through the hole in the kiosk (don’t toss it) and it scanned everything just fine. Worked great and saw plenty of staff on hand to help out, and could see others through the window working in the back. Clean location and a good experience.

They say they will accept empties until 4 45. Unless they want to be lazy then they will stop at 4 15

Very clean and organized. Roger does a great job and is very helpful and friendly. He even helps to sort.

Always friendly people only thing is sometimes the number of carts is low but other that that it is great

It was fun.pretty clean, considering its a bottle depot.but the big difference is the staff.i mean their really happy to help you.service is pretty fast.they should get a raise lol

It was unclean, there was no organization, and no signs to tell you what use or what they except. If you are going there for the first time like me, i suggest not to go you will feel lost.

Went to use the express dropoff and it was broken. Told by staff to go to one of the other locations to use this service. When I went to the dease Rd.location they told me they don't do that. Big waste of my time and I am upset about being mislead by staff as well as the poor management that allowed it.

The new location is very clean and much more pleasant than the previous location. However I do very much miss being able to one-stop miscellaneous recycle & bottle refunds in one hit, as the outside recycling containers are now nowhere to be found. Not really sure where else I can take all the things those containers used to take.
EDIT: I was being blind, the outside recycling containers are around the side, much to my delight:)

Arrived at the bottle depot today at 4: 47 only to be greeted by one of their employees telling me to hurry. In the process of trying to rush to get my recycling in they all went flyin all over the parking lot. After that he decide to offer his assistance which was too late and a little backwards. Offer help first and never tell a customer to rush. Your job is to stay open until 5 not 4: 47. Poor customer service and very upsetting to say the least to now having to make another trip there only to be greeted by bad customer service.

They rip me off every time I go in there, the most recent time they “missed” 30% of my returns and couldn’t give me a receipt.

New location might look nicer on the inside (if they let you in) but it now creates two stops to complete your recycling - one at the front inside and one at the back in the outdoor bins.

But the bigger issue for me is that they close the inside 10-15 mins early every day. I’ve been turned away three consecutive times by a gruff and abrupt employee guarding the door because I showed up between 4: 45pm - 5: 00pm with my $2 worth of pop cans.

I’m not a huge fan of recycling to begin with and dealing with this nonesense is too much now. If a business claims to be open until 5: 00pm, in my opinion that means they need to accept customers until that time - even if it means the employees have to work until 5: 15pm.

I may look for another location, but more than likely I’ll just trash it all now.

I am a retiree and go out of my way to do my part to recycle. I even make sure my deposits have washed out and are clean, so when I am met by some snotty millennial talking down to me in a sarcastic tone telling me to sort my cans, Ok fine I’ll do that but be polite about it. Then I get “Do you want to donate the proceeds of your deposit? “ Duh! If I wanted to do that I wouldn’t be going through the trouble of packing up my cans and driving out to your depot. I would just throw them into my blue bin! Then I hear “Oh BTW next time you come here make sure you remove the plastic caps off your containers as they can potentially cause an explosion” there were only 4 such containers with the caps screwed on very loosely Really! How lazy can these people be. I have been there numerous times and most of the staff is good but lately some of these new hires have been very rude. Oh and BTW I totally believe the other posts on this forum that suggest that people are being short changed for their deposits and that is not an over-site or mistake it is deliberate. Some of these employees need to be tweaked by management or better yet fired!

An honest review. The reason I give this bottle depot a one star review is because a couple individuals that work there I believe are honest and will give you a fair price for your bottles and cans. I have been ripped of numerous times going there to get a refund for my bottles and cans. Sometimes I bring in large amounts other times just a handful. When they short me they do it right in front of me and pretend and act as if nothing, is wrong and that there giving me a fair return. There was even a couple of instances in the past where I counted out my change for 10 dollars and was ripped off by ten cents. So now I have to count my spare change in front of them or go to a bank to get change. I also don't bring in everything at once, but a bit at a time so I don't get shorted as much. In my opinion if possible avoid going to this bottle depot. I don't think the other ones are much different, so far I haven't had too many issues with the other two but then again, I usually only go to this one to do my returns. Just give people an honest fair return for there bottles and cans mistakes can happen but there too frequent to be a mere coincidence. I work hard for my bottles and cans I collect them on the side of the road and often in thorny bushes I try to do my part to recycle. It's just disheartening to get shorted and ripped off 95% of the time when I go to refund the cans and plastic bottles I have collected. I understand you can't give out a few extra cents as an incentive to recycle but please don't rip people off. Thanks for hearing out and listening to what I have to say. I would like to thank anyone who actually took the time to read this. I felt like I needed to get this off my chest.

The staff are very friendly and helpful but you need to look out at times it's very busy and they do recycling too and you can recycle electronic.

Great place to recycle. In the parking lot in the back side, there is a book drop off and a clothes drop off for charity. Very handy.

These guys are great, work hard for minimum wage I'm sure. If you can't get along with these people your probably a A-S_

Friendly.and fast if you go out of peak times. Last time I was there I got a scratch money gift card lol