The Short Version
In Maine you pay a refundable deposit when you buy a drink — 5¢ on most containers and 15¢ on wine and liquor. You get it back when you return the empty to a redemption center. A few items, like dairy, are exempt. The deposits add up faster than people expect.
What is Maine's Bottle Bill?
Maine has had a beverage container deposit law — most people just call it the "Bottle Bill." It was enacted in 1976 and the program has been running since 1978. The idea is simple: when you buy a canned or bottled drink, you pay a small refundable deposit on top of the price. When you return the empty container, you get that deposit back. It keeps cans and bottles out of the ditches and gives everyone a reason to bring them back instead of tossing them.
That deposit is why bags of empties slowly pile up in garages and on porches all over Maine. Every one of those containers is money you've already paid — just waiting to be returned.
How much is the deposit — 5 cents or 15 cents?
Maine has two deposit amounts. Knowing which is which helps you estimate what a load is worth:
| Deposit | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 5¢ | Most beverage containers — soda, beer, water, sports drinks, iced tea, hard seltzer, and similar cans and bottles. |
| 15¢ | Wine and spirits containers (liquor bottles). These carry the higher deposit. |
So a sleeve of seltzer cans is worth a nickel apiece, while wine and liquor bottles are worth three times as much when you bring them back.
Which containers are covered — and which aren't?
Most sealed beverage containers sold in Maine carry a deposit. Per Maine DEP, these are the ones that don't:
- Milk and dairy-derived products
- Maine-produced apple cider and blueberry juice
- Seafood, meat, or vegetable broths and soups
- Instant drink powders
- Products meant to be consumed frozen
- Liquid syrups, concentrates, or extracts
- Just about everything else — soda, beer, water, seltzer, hard cider, wine coolers, wine, and liquor — carries a deposit.
How much are your bottles and cans worth?
Because most containers are a nickel each, the total adds up quickly:
A single kitchen trash bag can easily hold 200–300 cans — that's $10 to $15 a bag. A few weeks of a normal household, or one good cookout, and you're looking at real money. Wine and liquor bottles climb faster still at 15¢ each.
💡 Tip: Keep your wine and liquor bottles separate if you can — at 15¢ each, a case of empties is worth more than you'd think.
How do you redeem your deposit?
To get your money back, the empty containers have to make it to a redemption center. Traditionally that means bagging everything up, loading your vehicle, driving to a center, waiting while it's counted, and collecting your refund. The center is later reimbursed by the distributors, who collect the containers for recycling.
For most people the containers just need to be empty, labeled, in roughly their original shape, and sorted at the center. It works — it's just a chore, especially in rural areas where the nearest redemption center isn't close.
Why might a container get turned down?
Most empties go through fine, but a few things will get a container rejected. To make sure yours count:
- It has to carry the Maine deposit marking — the "ME 5¢" or "ME 15¢" printed or embossed on the container. No Maine marking, no refund.
- It needs to be empty — pour out any leftover liquid before it goes in the bag.
- The label should be intact — a missing or torn-off label can get a container kicked back.
- Keep it in roughly its original shape — badly crushed or smashed containers can be rejected.
- It has to be a deposit container — milk, dairy, and the other exempt items (above) never carried a deposit, so there's nothing to refund.
Good news for our pickup customers: you don't have to sort or inspect anything. Bag them up and leave them out — we handle the counting, and we'll let you know if anything in the batch couldn't be redeemed.
Before it ever hits the shelf: how a drink earns its spot in Maine
That whole nickel system doesn't just happen on its own. Before a single can of soda or bottle of wine can legally be sold in Maine, the company behind it has to clear a few hoops most shoppers never see.
Become a registered "Initiator of Deposit"
Every deposit beverage in Maine has to be tied to a registered Initiator of Deposit (IoD) — usually the distributor, sometimes the manufacturer, and for spirits, the State itself. The IoD is the company on the hook for that deposit, and Maine allows only one IoD per label.
Set up an account with the state
The IoD registers through Maine DEP's online beverage container label portal — the official system that tracks who's responsible for what.
Register every single label
Each individual product label gets registered with the DEP — product name, container and beverage type, glass color, UPC, and which commingling group it belongs to — for a per-label fee that has to be renewed on a schedule.
Mark the container correctly
The refund value and the word "Maine" (or "ME") must be printed or embossed right on the container. Wine and liquor bottles that don't carry it on the label need a DEP-approved deposit sticker. That "ME 5¢" you've seen on cans? This is why it's there.
Join the commingling cooperative
Maine's 2023 overhaul requires every IoD to join a commingling agreement, so their containers can be sorted and picked up together instead of brand-by-brand. It's meant to keep the whole system efficient.
Collect the deposit — and handle the back end
Only then can the IoD charge the retailer 5¢ or 15¢ per container (which flows down to you at the register). On the back end, they're also responsible for picking the empties back up from redemption centers in their territory and paying them the deposit plus the 6¢ handling fee.
So by the time you're standing at the register paying a nickel deposit, that can has already been registered, labeled, and slotted into a statewide collection system. Now follow that nickel:
Maine was an early adopter — it passed its Bottle Bill in 1976, the program took effect in 1978, and Maine remains one of only about ten U.S. states with a deposit system at all. Love it or grumble about it, it works: the program keeps more than 40,000 tons of glass, metal, and plastic out of Maine landfills every year, recycling all the glass that comes through and more than 60% of the plastic. A 2023 overhaul (the "commingling" reforms) is still rolling out, aimed at making sorting simpler for redemption centers and keeping the whole system running.
Follow the nickel: where the money actually comes from
Here's the part most people never think about. That deposit isn't a fee that disappears — it's your own money taking a round trip. Follow a single 5¢ nickel through the system and it all makes sense:
The distributor charges the store+5¢
When a distributor delivers a truckload of drinks, it charges the store a nickel for every container (15¢ for wine and liquor). The deposit enters the system right here.
The store charges you+5¢
At the register, the store passes that deposit straight through to you — a separate nickel on top of the price of the drink. You've now paid it.
You drink it — and you're holding your own money
That empty can in your garage is literally a nickel you already paid. Returning it isn't earning money — it's getting your own money back.
The redemption center pays you back−5¢
When your empties come in, the redemption center refunds your deposit out of its own till — 5¢ or 15¢ per container, right there on the spot.
The distributor buys the empties back+6¢ handling
The distributor collects the containers and pays the center back everything it refunded — plus a 6¢ handling fee per container. That handling fee is the only way redemption centers actually make money, and Maine's 6¢ is the highest of any deposit state in the country.
The cans get a second life
Sorted by material, the containers head off to be recycled into new cans, bottles, and packaging — over 40,000 tons of glass, metal, and plastic kept in the loop every year in Maine.
So how does a redemption center earn a living?
Not from your deposit — that's a wash, since they pay it out to you and get it back from the distributor. Their real income is that 6¢-per-container handling fee. It's a penny-by-penny business, which is exactly why the fee and how it's funded are a constant subject of debate in Augusta.
And the cans nobody brings back?
Mainers are good about this — somewhere around 8 of every 10 containers come back. But the deposits on the ones that don't — tossed in the trash, recycled curbside, or carried off to camp — add up to an estimated $16 million a year in "unclaimed" deposits. Who should get that pile of money — the beverage industry, the state, or programs like farmland conservation — is an argument lawmakers are still having.
What happens to Maine's containers
A few common questions about the Maine deposit
In Downeast Maine? Skip the trip entirely.
Cutler Village Redemption picks up your bottles and cans at your door, counts them, and pays you on the spot — free, from Milbridge to Eastport.
See How Our Pickup Works →