Local bottle redemption center owners expanding to Ankeny

ANKENY, IOWA — At the very end of the 2023 Iowa Legislative session, lawmakers passed the bottle bill with several goals. One was growing bottle redemption center businesses across the state.

Ames Bottle & Can opened up right after lawmakers made changes to the law. The two owners opening up the part time business with no real expectations on growth potential.

“We recycled seven million containers last year and we’re on track to double that this year,” said Evan Burger, co-owner of Ames and Ankeny Bottle & Can. “So obviously we have a model that really works.”

“We just decided that this thing’s booming, so maybe we should try to do one more,” said Johnathon Vaughn, co-owner of Ames and Ankeny Bottle & Can.

The duo took the moment in Ames and just opened Ankeny Bottle and Can in early July. While some may have grievances with the bottle bill stripping a lot of grocery stores of redemption units; the business partners want to make sure people in Ankeny have somewhere to redeem them all.

“The complaint that we hear is that there is not enough places to take it back, so, you know that’s kind of why we opened this one up. We want to address the complaint and provide a clean, friendly, easy way to redeem your cans,” said Burger.

Going back to 2023, the two would have never imagined opening up a new location in 2024. And now seeing the demand in Ames and already in Ankeny, they are pleased that community members are excited about the facilities.

“We have a business and you know we’re also fulfilling a need and a need that was being neglected,” said Vaughn. “So it does feel really great that we’re providing that for a community as well.”

The business partners are also giving back. Those who don’t want the money from their extra cans will have those funds donated to a non-profit.

“So we’ve given over $15,000 back through that nonprofit of the month program,” said Burger. The company has an application process for non-profits wishing to be the one who receives the monthly donations. That can be found on the company’s website .

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