Recycling centers are common if you know where to look - the ugly side of town is an ideal place for them (both because they are by nature messy, and because competition means they can't afford are more expensive area). Many small towns have a place to recycle (most small town industry has enough metal waste to make it worth recycling, so there is demand)
Though in Iowa the way the redemption works is any store that sells it must take it back. I don't know how redemption centers work, because we don't have them, instead every supermarket takes their cans back. This ends up being a war on generic soda: coke/pepsi you can take anywhere, but stores will reject the other-store brand cans making them a hassle to sort.