Vancouver Central Return-It Express Depot

I came in today with 1000s of beer cans, the staff helped us sort them out. Genuinely good people that work there, I never got this sort of service in the past, but the staff they have there now are awesome.

***Update December 2023***
This place is still trash. It is literally steps away from my house but I drove to south van to return my cans. They are honest, friendly and drastically faster! Stop wasting your time here people.

Any 5 star reviews you see of this place is a complete lie and posted by workers.

***Update: May 2021***
My opinion on this place remains the same. I have been to many other depots and this is definitely the worst of them. Essentially every other bottle depot is good other than this one.

This depot has to be the worst of all of them. I’d drive to Burnaby just to avoid this location. Disgusting inside and the workers are no better. Agree with other reviews; they are definitely ripping people off. They need new ownership and new staff.a complete overhaul

Not happy with the recycling of the juice 2L I used to get 25cents for 1 but here 124 plastic tin of cranberry juice they paid me 12.40 it turns out 0.1cent per tin. When u buy a 2L juice of cranberry you paid 25cent recycle auto add on to the receipt

I wouldnt even want to give this location one star… i used the express service and dropped a big plastic bag of recyclables and they credited me only $0.80. That is just 8 bottles instead of the 100+ cans i dropped off. Very disappointing and dishonest staff. The owner better be checkin on his staff performance regularly.

I went to turn in my recycling. I also used to work here. The staff is rude and condensending. I counted all my bottles, labeled and bagged them before going there as to not use up there counter space and carts as i had 150$ in bottle and didnt want to back up there day. Also have a physical disability and cant stand at thecounter for long periods of time to sort bottles. I was accused of miscounting the bottles and threatened by staff over it. I found this to be unacceptable behavior that they could have just told me. I am human not a machine i accept that there is a possibility that i miscount unintentionally however to go as fars as to threaten a customer. Is rude and uncalled for. I recycle and use this money to take my specail needs kids camping yearly so they can have the much needed break from the city.

Dishonest staff. Takes your bottles and don’t add it to the register. Happened more than once. I’ll watch him from now on. When he thinks you are not looking, he tosses 2 crates of bottles into the back, then acts like he’s cleaning up the crates on the side and don’t add your bottles to the register. Be careful. Count your bottles beforehand. Watch them when they ring your bottles up.

Alrighty, listen. If you are a penny pincher who really, REALLY, R E A L L Y, cannot live with the fact that they take off a few cents per can or bottle, don’t come here. This is not for you.

If you’re like me, and you want to recycle and do your part for the environment without having to go through sticky cans and without having to suffer through the weird used bottle smell, COME HERE.tl;dr if 5 cents is gonna break your back, don’t come here.

This place is worst, I have been drop off my bags many times to this location, overall they short paid me 6.5%, I believe that they don't pay full amount of bottles, and I have experienced they lost my bags, two times so far, I have contacted them and take long time to get estimate refund. The peoples there not friendly not answer any question not even talk to you.

Only had one incident that I felt cheated.buddy didn't count 2 of my flats I know they missed. He tried to call me out knowing I couldn't tell him how many I had altogether, I thought it was pretty low to rip me off of for a couple of bucks.but $2 off all the people coming thru could add up to some $1-$200 one day. But other than that one time, All good.nice folks, decent, and seemingly honest.

I used to be here for recycling and bottle refunding. But the staff in this station suddenly did not accept foam containers one day without giving any reason. Yet the RecycleBC app still marks it as taking form containers. Moreover, this station is always full of people and needs to queue long before you can finally receive your refunds.
I am now going to the one in Metrotown instead.

Much like many others, I feel like I was not credited for the correct amount. I have noticed over the times I have visited that the staff has changed. I didn't have issues before. I dropped off 6 bags at the express area and received about $100. I dropped off 5 bags a few months later at a different location (because their label machine was STILL broken) and received $120, for less bags! I usually average about $20/bag. Clearly something fishy going on at this particular location.

Returned 120 cans and only got back $6. Thought it was because cans were $. 05 each, but then checked online and they're $. 10 each. So they're definitely ripping people off. Read other reviews that say they don't pay for Alcoholic drink containers, but then they should at least say something or have a sign up. I also think staff/management are stealing the alcohol containers and then going to the BC Liquor stores to pocket the money.

Was told by the young man who worked there that they don't take cardboard anymore, since 2 weeks ago. Frustrating.

The staff are okay but the place isn’t. It stinks and the blue trays are sticky and almost black. Been there twice but I am going somewhere else next time. I really can’t handle that smell!

The place is tiny and crowded and the floor and tables were sticky. Staff are overworked, but neither the size of the place nor the number of people who show up are within their control. But it would help if there were signs to indicate what the procedures are, how to get a tray or cart, and which line-ups are for what purpose. Won't be returning, despite this location being the easiest for me to get to.

Super busy. Small space. Not a free table at all. First time here. Had like 6 garbage bags of empties to separate. Ended up doing it on the floor in front of the cashier. Also the sink to wash your hands are not working. Just a very few drops coming out. I think I rather go somewhere else next time.

UPDATE They do now pay full refunds.

They don't pay full deposit on beer cans and don't have it posted. This is the only Return it im aware of that doesn't. Not coming back.

Had a great experience the first time I did express drop off but I recently went again with 6 bags and only 4 bags were accounted for. It has been over 2 weeks and I specifically put a certain number of cans/bottles in each bag and saw that it was shorted when the summary came into my express account. Now I'm short 2 full bags and missing bottles/cans. Huge rip off. Go to another location if possible.

1-gallon drink plastic containers are worth $0.25 anywhere in Alberta, while only $0.10 here (Idk if it's the same anywhere in Vancouver). Nice depot. Parking available right on site.

The guys who worked here were so nice. They went out of their way to help me and make sure my returns were handled quickly.

Aman helped me recycle my electronics and went out of his way to find me some great boxes for my move!

They take beer cans, plastic bottles, pop cans, juice boxes, bi-metal juice containers, glass wine and juice, electronics (TV, MICROWAVE, CPU etc.), small home appliances, paint cans, soft plastic, styrofoam, food containers for recycling only, cardboard, light tubes and bulbs, batteries. And they also do have express drop off service.

Crooks! Normally visited the Return-It on Kaslo but following its closure visited Kingsway instead. What they don't tell you up front is that they won't accept beer cans and bottles. 10 days later can't do much about it but I think we all know what the employees do with containers that can be recycled elsewhere. Shameful.

Staff is very helpful and polite. If you’re new then you can ask them and they will help you with pleasure. Sometimes it’s too busy so you gotta have patience.

Zero help and/or directions for new customers. I will give my bottles to the homeless before i step foot in there again. Or burn the place down.

It was not busy, so I was able to use a cart and get a station without waiting too long. I was also able to recycle batteries, soft plastics and cardboard which was nice.

We return our bottles here bi-monthly and they've always provided us with quick and friendly service. Today we had taken our old giant box TV from the 90s to the depot and Aman went out of his way to help us return it. I didn't think they had to take a tv of this size but they helped take it off our hands.

Great service!
it was my first time to this location the manager Aman create my express account and explained everything for future use. Make sure you have your stuff in clear bags.
Awesome staff nice place to recycle

Dropped off some electronic recycling and some other stuff today and the guy Aman who helped us was great, very polite and friendly!:)

Very friendly staff.one of the worker name Aman helped me a lot.the best customer service experience i ever had

It's a good place to recycle. Crew here are polite and helpful. There is a line bigger than usual because of Covid19