A deposit on every bottle, refunded at 41 depots

Ten cents a bottle, paid back the moment you hand it over

AitOne runs the deposit return scheme for glass and PET across four parishes. Producers pay the deposit in, you get it back at any of forty-one depots, in cash, the same minute. Sixty-eight per cent of what goes out comes back, which is the only number that matters and the one every scheme in the world is coy about.

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Closed, opens Tuesday at 08:00

+1 876 938 2255

How it works, in four steps

1
A producer pays the deposit in

Every registered producer pays ten cents per glass container and eight per PET into the scheme fund when it puts the container on the market. That is where the money comes from. It is not a levy and it is not ours.
2
You pay it at the shop

It appears on your receipt as a separate line, which is a legal requirement and also the only way anybody remembers it is refundable.
3
You take the container to a depot

Forty-one depots across four parishes, including eleven that are inside supermarkets you are already standing in. Opening hours for all of them are on this site and they are accurate.
4
You get the whole thing back, in cash

The whole deposit. There is no handling deduction, no minimum quantity and no card. If a depot is short of cash it will say so at the door rather than after you have queued.

What you get back

See everything

Glass bottle, up to 750mlTen cents. Empty and with the neck intact. Labels, caps and a little dirt are all... Glass bottle, over 750mlFifteen cents. The same condition rule. Crates of returnables are counted at the counter rather than... PET bottle, up to 1 litreEight cents. Crushed is fine as long as the barcode can still be read; if it... PET bottle, over 1 litreTwelve cents. The commonest container in the scheme and the one with the lowest return rate,... Aluminium canEight cents. Added to the scheme in 2024 after two years of asking. Flattened is fine. Depot, per container handledTwo cents per container, settled fortnightly, the same rate for a supermarket and a one-room shop....

Sixty-eight per cent

The redemption rate is the honest measure of a scheme, so here is ours

Sixty-eight per cent of deposits paid in were claimed back last year. The unredeemed third is the scheme’s income and we publish what it was spent on.

Every deposit scheme is funded by the deposits nobody reclaims, which creates an obvious and rarely discussed incentive to make reclaiming inconvenient. Ours was sixty-eight per cent last year, up from fifty-one in the first year, and we would like it higher even though a higher number means less money. The unredeemed portion came to about 2.1 million and the audited breakdown of where it went — depot payments, transport, the two new depots in Saint Thomas and nine per cent on administration — is published with the annual figures rather than summarised.

About the scheme

Depots: 41
Deposits redeemed: 68%
Spent on administration: 9%
Parishes covered: 4

What people say

4.75 out of 5 · 8 reviews

★★★★★

Cash at the counter, no card, no app, no minimum. My kids keep the money.

★★★★★

Two cents a container, paid every fortnight for three years without fail.

★★★★★

Producer registration was two pages and took two days.

★★★★★

Forty-one depots is not everywhere yet. Two more opened this year.

★★★★★

They publish where the unredeemed deposits went, audited.

★★★★★

Same handling rate for my one-room shop as for the supermarket.

★★★★★

Crushed PET needs a readable barcode. Say so at the door, and they do.

★★★★★

They closed a depot for short-changing people and paid the customers back.

Read all the reviews

The things people ask at the counter

What counts as a returnable container, what happens to a crushed one, how producers register, and where the unredeemed money goes.

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What is a container worth?

Ten cents for glass up to 750ml, fifteen above it, eight for PET up to a litre, twelve above it, and eight for an aluminium can. The value is set by material and size rather than by brand and it is identical at all forty-one depots.

What condition does it need to be in?

Empty, with the neck intact for glass, and with a readable barcode for PET and cans. Labels, caps and ordinary dirt are all acceptable and no depot may refuse a container for those. Crushed PET is fine if the barcode survives.

Is there a minimum?

No minimum, no maximum, no card and no app. One bottle is a valid return. If a depot is short of cash it must say so at the door rather than after you have queued, and a depot that does not is reported and logged.

Where does the money come from?

Producers pay the deposit into the scheme fund when they put a container on the market, and you pay it at the till as a separate line on your receipt. It is not a tax and it does not belong to us; the unredeemed portion funds the scheme and is published with the annual figures.

How do I become a depot?

A two-page application, answered within a week. You are paid two cents per container handled, settled fortnightly, at the same published rate as everybody else. You need somewhere dry to store containers and enough float to pay refunds in cash.

How do producers register?

Once, with a two-page form, answered in two working days, and then a one-page monthly return of containers placed on the market. There is no registration fee and no annual charge.

What if a depot short-changes me?

Tell us the depot and the day. Every complaint is logged against that depot and the counts per depot are published in the collection notes. We have closed one depot for it and the customers affected were paid back from the fund.

Depots and producers both welcome

Run a shop, or put containers on the market?

Depots are paid per container handled and settled fortnightly. Producers register once and report monthly. Both processes are two pages long and neither one costs anything to start.

Join the scheme