Can Drive Fundraiser: The State-by-State Guide
Only ten states pay you for the container. Here's what each one pays, where to redeem, and how a team turns one weekend into real money.
A can drive is the rare fundraiser that costs nothing to run, asks nobody for cash, and pays out the same weekend. But it only works in a bottle-bill state — and the difference between a $150 drive and an $800 drive is almost entirely the state you live in.
Ten states (plus Guam) charge a refundable deposit when you buy a beverage. Return the empty container and you get that nickel or dime back. Everywhere else, a can is worth nothing at the counter, no matter how many you collect. So before your team prints a single flyer, check your state's deposit rate — it decides your math, your scale, and your fundraising goal.
Every Bottle-Bill State at a Glance
| State | Deposit | Containers Covered | Return Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 10¢ | Beer, soda, and other carbonated drinks | ~73% (93% average since 1990 — the highest in the nation) |
| Oregon | 10¢ | Beer, soda, water, juice, coffee, tea, and kombucha | ~87% — the highest redemption rate in the country |
| Connecticut | 10¢ | Beer, soda, water, tea, hard cider, and coffee | ~50% — the largest upside of any 10¢ state |
| California | 5¢ / 10¢ | Most beverages — 5¢ under 24 oz, 10¢ at 24 oz and over | ~59% |
| New York | 5¢ | Beer, soda, water, and wine coolers | ~64% |
| Maine | 5¢ (15¢ wine & liquor) | Beer, soda, water, juice, and wine — 15¢ on wine and liquor bottles | ~77% |
| Massachusetts | 5¢ | Beer, soda, malt beverages, and water | ~47% — the most unclaimed deposits in the region |
| Vermont | 5¢ (15¢ liquor) | Beer, soda, malt beverages — 15¢ on liquor bottles | ~72% |
| Iowa | 5¢ | Beer, soda, water, and wine coolers | ~61% |
| Hawaii | 5¢ | Most beverages including juice, tea, coffee, and sports drinks | ~70% |
Deposit rates and container lists current as of 2026. Bottle bills change — Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut pay the most; Maine and Vermont pay up to 15¢ on wine and liquor.
The Math That Decides Your Fundraiser
This is the single number your team should look at before committing to a can drive. It is not how many containers you can collect — it is how much each one is worth.
| Deposit Rate | Containers for $100 | Containers for $500 | Containers for $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10¢ (MI, OR, CT) | 1,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| 5¢ (CA, NY, ME, MA, VT, IA, HI) | 2,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| 15¢ (wine & liquor — ME, VT) | 667 | 3,333 | 6,667 |
To make that concrete: a typical grocery bag holds 30–40 containers, and a large trash bag holds 200–300. In a 10¢ state, one full bag of cans is worth $20–30. Four full bags covers a pizza party. Forty covers a banquet.
Why Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut Are the Best Can-Drive States
Three states pay double what everyone else pays, which means your team needs half the containers for the same money. Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut all pay 10¢ per container — and 1,000 cans is $100.
- Michigan — the highest flat rate in the country, on every beer and soda container, with a 93% historical return rate. No state account, no bag tags: retailer reverse vending and independent redemption centers pay out immediately.
- Oregon — 10¢ on the widest container list in the country (water, juice, coffee, tea, kombucha) and an 87% return rate. BottleDrop means you bag at home and never count a container by hand.
- Connecticut — doubled to 10¢ in January 2024 and expanded the container list at the same time, but still redeems only about half its containers. That gap is your fundraiser.
If your state pays 5¢, the drive still works — it just takes volume instead of value. New York, Massachusetts and Iowa all redeem well under 70% of their containers, which means most of the deposits are still sitting unclaimed in garages.
Why a Can Drive Beats Every Product Sale
Nobody has to buy anything, nobody has to sell anything, and the donors are giving away something they were never going to redeem anyway. Every container collected is a deposit a household already paid and never claimed — the team simply turns it back into cash.
Total hands-on time is a few hours across the team, not a season. The containers are free; getting them is the part teams get wrong. Those cans are already sitting in somebody else's bin on somebody else's schedule, and they only come out if the household decides to set them aside for your team. That is a communication job, not a collection job — and it is the entire difference between a drive that brings in three bags and one that clears four figures in a weekend.
What's in the 6-Hour Team Fundraiser Kit — $6.99, instant download
What you get: a complete, fillable kit you print and run — ready-to-print team communication materials, route and volunteer planning sheets, collection tracking forms, a sorting and totals worksheet, the complete step-by-step checklist, a Pro-Tips reference card, and the thank-you cards that keep people participating next season.
It's built for a $600+ goal in about 6 hours of team effort — no selling, no door-knocking, and no asking families to buy anything. And it's built around the one asset that does the asking for you: the single piece that decides whether a drive comes home with three bags or four figures, and the piece we are deliberately not printing on this page.
Team name, sport and year are fillable right in the PDF — no design software needed. Print it at home or anywhere you have a printer. Nothing ships. Get the kit — $6.99 →
Pick Your State
Each guide covers the deposit math, exactly where to redeem, and how teams run the drive locally.
California
5¢ / 10¢ per container — most beverages — 5¢ under 24 oz, 10¢ at 24 oz and over.
Can Drive Guide →Maine
5¢ (15¢ wine & liquor) per container — beer, soda, water, juice, and wine — 15¢ on wine and liquor bottles.
Can Drive Guide →Vermont
5¢ (15¢ liquor) per container — beer, soda, malt beverages — 15¢ on liquor bottles.
Can Drive Guide →Hawaii
5¢ per container — most beverages including juice, tea, coffee, and sports drinks.
Can Drive Guide →Can Drive FAQ
Which states pay a deposit on cans and bottles?
Ten states run bottle deposit programs: Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut, California, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, and Hawaii. Michigan, Oregon, and Connecticut pay 10¢ per container; the rest pay 5¢, with Maine and Vermont paying up to 15¢ on wine and liquor bottles.
How much can a team raise with a can drive?
It depends entirely on your deposit rate. At 10¢ per container, 5,000 containers raises $500. At 5¢ you need 10,000 containers for the same $500. A large trash bag holds 200–300 containers, so a weekend that fills a garage with bags is realistically a $300–$800 fundraiser.
Can you collect cans from a different state and redeem them?
No. Deposits belong to the state where the container was purchased — redeeming out-of-state containers is deposit fraud, and states like Connecticut have been actively cracking down on cross-border returns. A local, in-state drive avoids the problem entirely.
Do you need a permit to run a can drive?
For a standard neighborhood drive where the team collects and redeems containers, no permit is typically required. Some states, including Oregon through BottleDrop Give, let you route redemption funds directly to a school or nonprofit account — which gives booster clubs and PTAs a clean paper trail.
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