This is just one of the stories from our “I’ve Always Wondered” series, where we tackle all of your questions about the world of business, no matter how big or small. Ever wondered if recycling is worth it? Or how store brands stack up against name brands? Check out more from the series here.

Listener Gilbert Sainz asks:

How do bottle and can recycling centers make money if they’re paying you for the materials you drop off? 

Recycling centers are the rare operation where you, the consumer, end up making money. 

But behind the scenes, recycling centers can make money through various methods, which can include compensation from the state, sales from any materials they receive, and reimbursement through bottle deposit fees, according to experts Marketplace spoke to. 

States might provide recycling centers with handling fees, which are the fees consumers get for returning a can. If you return an item and get 10 cents, the redemption center itself might receive three and a half cents, said Jackson Somers, an assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Connecticut. 

Some states impose a bottle deposit fee on beverages, which you get back when you recycle the bottle, Somers said.

“We all pay in when we buy our materials that are valid for bottle deposit,” Somers explained.

Not everyone returns their materials, which generates a pool of unclaimed money, and a portion of that can be used to support recycling centers, Somers said.

Recycling centers, depending on the state they’re in, might be allowed to sell their scrap materials, Somers added.

But it’s tough to stay in business. “You're always at the whim of consumers redeeming bottles or containers,” Somers said. 

These centers also have to pay for labor and operating costs, which tend to go up every year, Somers said. 

Some centers have to spend money on sorting through the material, melting them down and forming them into sheets so they can sell them, said Vidya Mani, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia.

And some materials, like plastic, are hard to recycle because the material can exist in different forms and melt differently, Mani said. 

Some states don’t increase their handling fees, which means some recycling centers aren’t getting properly compensated, Somers explained. 

Centers are subject to broader economic forces, so if there’s a recession, you’re not going to be able to sell your scraps for as much money, Somers said. 

They also have to face broader policy forces. Prior to 2018, the United States used to sell its recyclable materials to China, which would process them, said Dylan Brewer, an assistant professor of economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

But China instituted a policy called Operation National Sword, reducing the amount of material it accepted from the U.S., Europe and Australia. 

“The issue was a lot of recycling in the U.S. was food contaminated or not sorted very well, and it was leading to a lot of the recycled materials just being thrown out,” Brewer said. 

That decision led some recycling centers to shut down or lose money. The recycling program in Fort Worth, Texas, was projected to lose $1.6 million in 2019 after it earned the city $1 million the prior two years. 

“From an economic perspective, recycling is really disappointing. We wish it worked, and we wish that it was profitable,” Brewer said. 

While the costs and benefits aren’t great right now, the hope is that future technology can improve the recycling process, Brewer said.