Courtesy Jade Eddy
By Christine Graf
After MT Returnables owner Bob Ball died in a motorcycle accident in August 2020, his oldest daughter, Jade Eddy, spent the next eight months working to reopen the business.
Because Ball had no will and operated his business as a sole proprietorship, the company’s bottle and can redemption centers in Corinth and Queensbury were forced to close.
Ball established MT Returnables in Corinth in 2005 after a 20-year career with International Paper. When the paper company closed, he began collecting bottles and cans to earn money. At the time, bottle redemption centers were a new concept.
“He had a difficult time finding a job,” said Eddy. “He started driving around town and collecting bottles and cans from people and sorting them in the garage. We started calling him a professional hobo. My senior year in high school, he got a building in Corinth, and I thought he had lost his mind.”
Eddy, a Lake Luzerne native, started working part-time for her father when he opened the business. After graduating from high school, she continued to work part-time while enrolled in the business program at Adirondack Community College. At the time, she dreamed of opening her own clothing store. After discovering that she didn’t enjoy working in retail, she decided to work full-time at MT Returnables. In 2012, after Ball became overwhelmed by the administrative side of operations, he put her in charge of the business.
“Thankfully, that prepared me for the last year,” said Eddy. “It made the transition into becoming the owner a lot easier.”
After her father’s death, Eddy faced an uphill battle to reopen the business.
“When we met with the attorneys, they told us that as a sole proprietorship that the business ceased to exist when my father passed,” said Eddy. “Because I had the permission of my sisters, I was able to keep the name and open it as my own. I really got put through the ringer because I had to do everything as if this was a brand new business. I had to get a new DBA, re-register with the county, redo all of the building permits. It was a lot, and I had a lot of very stressful days with a lot of tears.”
In order to reopen, Eddy needed to raise more than $16,000 in capital. With her father’s business assets tied up in his estate, she sought a bank loan.
“Because of the nature of this business that I had to pay out money to customers, I had to have money to start with,” she said. “So I went to the bank but they wouldn’t even complete my loan application because I had been unemployed since my dad died.”
Eddy was devastated that she would be unable to reopen a business that had meant so much to her father. When leaning on friends for support, they suggested she start a GoFundMe.
“I really did not want to do that at all, but I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “Within about two weeks, we had all of the money we need to reopen. My dad left behind such a supportive group for us girls because we have had so many fundraisers and helped so many people over the years. It just kind of circled back around when I needed it. The community has been so supportive, and they helped us with his funeral and all sorts of things because we were completely caught off guard by everything.”
Eddy was able to use the funds to reopen the redemption center at 71 Ohio Ave. in Queensbury where she leases the building. Because the Corinth redemption center was operated out of a building owned by her father, that location remains closed.
Although the last year has been an emotional roller coaster for Eddy, it was not difficult for her to make the transition from employee to owner. For her, the hardest part is working there without her father who was also her best friend.
“Things are going well, but it was hard in the beginning,” said Eddy. “I didn’t have any interaction with customers for probably at least two months. It was too emotional, and everyone who came in wanted to talk about my dad. I’m now at the point where I can talk with customers, and we can laugh about funny memories.”
Eddy has two full-time employees and one seasonal employee for the busy summer season when daily redemptions can exceed 30,000 containers per day. On a slow day, that number is closer to 15,000. The business receives a 3.5 cent handling fee for each container that is processed.
During COVID, MT Returnables introduced car-side service at the redemption center. Customers are able to have their containers counted without ever leaving their cars.
According to Eddy, she plans to continue her father’s legacy of supporting the community with bottle drives. They are currently support an organization that provides snacks to students at eighteen area schools. Upcoming bottle drive proceeds will be used to provide Thanksgiving meals to needy families and Christmas gifts to senior citizens.