DCHP-2

redemption centre DCHP-2 (June 2016)

• n. — New Brunswick

  a recycling centre for bottles and beverage containers.

  Type: 1. Origin — Redemption centre is virtually restricted to Canada (see Chart 1). This term is most prevalent in New Brunswick, and is used only occasionally in other provinces (see Chart 2). It seems to be commonly misinterpreted as a religious institution, sometimes to comic effect (see the 2000 and 2012 quotations).
  See also OED-3, s.v. "redemption centre" (b), COD-2, s.v. "redemption centre", which labels the term "Cdn (Maritimes & Nfld)"; we have no evidence for Newfoundland use of this term.

  See also: green bin  blue box  

  • 1987  The can-and-bottle redemption centre across the street has a shed out back that's stacked waist deep in giant clear plastic bags full of shiny empty aluminum beer cans. 
  • 1998  "I took major dollars out of my pension fund last year to keep the recyclables going," admitted Al Brun, owner of the Southside Redemption Centre in Fredericton yesterday. But as of Jan. 1 he limited the type of materials he'll handle to those collected through the city's blue box program: beverage containers for which a deposit was paid, plastic bags, cardboard, and newspapers. 
  • 2000  Call me slow. I lived in New Brunswick for two years before I twigged to the fact that what looked like a down-the-street church wasn't religious at all. A redemption centre is actually a bottle depot. OK, I'm really slow. I had been hoarding my returnables in the basement since I hadn't located a recycling warehouse. Silly me. There was no way I was going in to something called a redemption centre to ask about their line of business. So I never discovered their real purpose. Bottles piled high around the furnace. 
  • 2008  Freedom Fighters recently set up accounts at the Charlotte County Can & Bottle, Andrew J Peters & Sons Salvage in Pennfield and the St. George Redemption Centre. Along with the bottle drive, the group is collecting pennies with buckets set up at local businesses in the area. Last year more than $7,000 was raised. 
  • 2012  Like me, when I moved to New Brunswick from England, she noticed a somewhat rundown looking building with a big sign that read Redemption Centre and thought, what a funny looking church. It took us both a while to realize that the redeemed in this situation were bottles and cans, not people. Turns out her redeemer lived in a trailer out back. 
  • 2016  At my age, a slide down Magic Mountain's Kamikaze in cheap floppy trunks is mildly mundane compared to the hair-raising experience of discovering the worth of the group RRSP has skyrocketed to the dizzying heights of one day's take at your local redemption centre.