Business Profile: P&K Redemption Center, Brewster
Every cent can make a difference.
That’s the thought process that the owners of P&K Redemption Center, Cliff Zimmerman (nickname Kippy) and Prince Singh, have been counting on during the month of August. The new business, which is a place where residents can turn in bottles and cans for monetary returns, has been offering six cents per deposit, instead of the usual five cents. With bags of bottles and cans–water, soda, and beer–almost reaching the wall in the warehouse along Marvin Avenue in the Village of Brewster, Kippy wants to show people the best way to return and recycle.
“(We want) to bring people here to show them exactly what we do, which is much better I think and much faster than going to other places,” Kippy said. “It’s an environmental thing, too.”
Every single item–and even in a months time there are thousands of them–is recycled. When a customer comes in, they simply dump their stuff on an enclosed table and Kippy counts it out. Nothing has to be put in bags, nothing has to be sorted, and they don’t have to deal with machines that can malfunction on occasion.
“I’m the machine,” Kippy said. “I count them, I sort them, we give you your money and on the way you go.”
Throughout the course of the week, the redemption center has trucks come through and pick up the recyclables.
Some of the plastic is taken, melted down and sterilized, and little beads are made out of them. Clothing companies purchase those beads and make clothing out of them. The brown glass bottles are crushed down, sterilized into tiny pieces and melted into wine bottles. Other bottles are simply reused again to drink from after a proper process.
With all the pollution and garbage on the side of roads and in bodies in water, finding a environmentally sound alternative is important, Kippy said.
Kippy has bounced around to different professional fields over the past many years. He’s a hairdresser by trade, but hurt his back and gave up his business. Then, he worked at IBM in Poughkeepsie for the past 18 years before being laid off in January.
Singh already has three other locations up in Dutchess County and asked Kippy if he wanted to come on board. Singh was searching for another location and after driving around, he stumbled upon the Brewster warehouse as a perfect spot.
Kippy hopes to get more involved in the community and work with the Brewster school system. Students would count and sort bottles and cans and in return P&K Redemption would cut the school a check for supplies. It wouldn’t be a lot of money, Kippy said, but it would be something going toward the schools and community members in it.
As for the six cents offer, it ends Aug. 31 (Wednesday.)
“We try to help people, make them understand what we do, why it’s good for the environment,” Kippy said. “I get the chance to talk to people. I’m a hairdresser by trade, I’m use to talking to people.”
P&K Redemption Center is located at 66 Marvin Avenue in Brewster and its phone numbers are 845 476 7366 or 845 302 2233.
