Bottle drives were invented as a means to provide fundraising opportunities for non-profit organizations, while they can help out those who donate by saving them the time of returning the bottles themselves. Bottle drives also help to keep neighbourhoods cleaner.
Recent restrictions have made it difficult or impossible to run a bottle drive the traditional way, so some bottle depot’s adapted and began offering an online bottle drive option. This allows the organizations that have traditionally relied on bottle drives to raise funds to continue to do so without any gathering or contact. And though restrictions are now lifting in many areas, an online bottle drive is still a very desirable option for non-profit organizations.
In the past, an organization would plan a bottle drive and contact their local bottle depot for support. Our bottle depot offered a package that helped the organization plan a successful bottle drive such as a template for signs to let the neighbourhood know when to have their bottles ready. We also offered the option to have all of the collected bottles dropped at a set location and our delivery (or pick up) truck would collect the large volume of bottles, take them to the depot for counting and provide the refund back to the key team members organizing the drive.
With an online bottle drive, any non-profit organization can register with our bottle depot. Once set up with us, they can begin letting their supporters know that when they return bottles to our depot, they can ask to designate their refund to the online bottle drive of their choice.
The great thing about an online bottle drive is that supporters can return their bottles in 3 ways:
- In Person: A supporter comes into the bottle depot, has their bottles and cans counted and then requests that their refund be donated to the specific online bottle drive they want to support.
- Curbside: Those who wish to donate to your online bottle drive will pull up to our bottle depot and our team will take their bottles from their vehicle into the bottle depot. They will be counted and then they can ask to contribute the refund amount to the online bottle drive.
- Pick-Up: We now also offer pick up options to anywhere in the city. This means that anyone who would like to support your online bottle drive can fill out our form online or text us to schedule a pick up. We will co-ordinate a date and time window for the pick up and the supporter only has to place the bottles outside in an accessible location. The bottles are then taken to the depot, counted and donated to the online bottle drive of their choice.
Bottle drives continue te an important way for organizations to raise funds so providing these work arounds are the bottle depot’s way of trying to allow for flexibility so the fundraisers can still happen. Going forward, we expect the online bottle drive option to compliment our online bottle drive option so the two can work in conjunction with each other helping an group to raise even more money because of the flexible options.