Florida has no bottle deposit law. When you buy a canned soda, a bottled water, or a six-pack of beer in Florida, no deposit is added at the register, and no retailer or redemption center in the state will pay you to bring the empty back. Recycling in Florida runs through county programs funded by non-refundable utility fees, not through consumer deposits tied to individual containers.
What a Deposit Law Would Mean
In the ten states that run deposit systems, you pay a small surcharge, usually five or ten cents per container, when you buy a covered beverage. Return the empty to a redemption center or participating retailer and you get that money back. Deposits range from two cents on standard refillable containers in Oregon to fifteen cents on wine and liquor bottles in Maine and Vermont.1National Conference of State Legislatures. State Beverage Container Deposit Laws
The states with active bottle bills are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont, plus the territory of Guam.1National Conference of State Legislatures. State Beverage Container Deposit Laws Florida is not one of them. Bottle bill proposals have surfaced in the Florida Legislature over the years, but none have passed.
How Florida Handles Recycling Instead
The collection and processing of recyclable containers in Florida is handled by counties and municipalities. State law requires each county to run a recycling program, and the shape of that program depends on where you live. Larger counties generally offer single-stream curbside pickup, where glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper all go into the same bin. Counties with populations of 100,000 or less can meet their obligation by providing drop-off collection points and running a public education campaign about recycling.2Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 403.706 – Local Government Solid Waste Responsibilities What’s accepted and when it’s picked up depends on your local facility.
You pay for these services through your utility bill. Those charges are service fees set by local ordinance. They are not deposits, and you cannot recover them by turning in containers.
Can You Get Money for Empty Containers in Florida?
Not per container, but aluminum has scrap value. Scrap metal yards across the state buy aluminum cans by the pound, and prices move with the commodities market. In early 2026, Florida scrap yards were paying roughly $0.38 to $0.75 per pound. It takes about 30 to 35 empty cans to make a pound, so the per-can return works out to a penny or two. Nothing like a nickel deposit, but worth something if you accumulate a large quantity.
Glass and plastic containers have little to no scrap value for individual consumers in Florida. Your realistic options for those are county curbside recycling or a local drop-off center. Some private facilities accept sorted plastics but rarely pay consumers directly.
Empties From a Deposit State
If you bought beverages in Michigan, New York, or another deposit state and carried the empties home to Florida, you cannot redeem them here. No Florida retailer is set up to accept deposit returns, and no state law requires any to do so. The deposit is tied to the state where the container was sold and the fee collected. To get that money back, you’d have to return the containers to a redemption center in the state of purchase.
Running the trick the other way is a bad idea. Hauling non-deposit containers from Florida into a deposit state and feeding them into redemption machines is fraud. Michigan has specific criminal penalties for fraudulent container redemption, and several deposit states have been tightening enforcement with measures like tracking bulk drop-offs and authorizing police to pursue out-of-state violators. The deposits are small; the fines and potential criminal charges are not.