New Container Recycling Fee (CRF) for Ceramic bottles

Starting September 1, 2024, ceramic bottles will be classified as its own material type and bear the cost to manage that material within the Return-It system. The CRF being charged on ceramic bottles started September 1 is $29.51 and will be reviewed annually. CRFs are non-refundable, paid by the consumer at the point of purchase and calculated to reflect the actual cost to manage a specific material and container type. To learn more about CRFs, please visit the Return-It website.

Ceramic bottles have traditionally been recycled with glass bottles, however due to the material properties of ceramic, it acts as a contaminate within glass and can spoil an entire batch of recycled glass. Given the number of ceramic bottles being consumed and returned, it has reached a critical point where ceramic bottles need to be separated from glass in order to maintain the quality of that stream of material.

Return-It was founded on the guiding principles of a true cost-based system, no cross-subsidization of revenue or costs across material types and to have the lowest possible impact on consumer shelf prices.

To learn more about ceramics, visit or page on Ceramic Bottle Recycling.