Reverse Vending Machines…yes please
Gizmodo has an article on Envirobank’s Reverse Vending Machines which are an environmentally friendly receptacle for your empty cans or bottles. The Australian company has rolled out a few of their machines to see what the response is. For your empty bottle, and for viewing a ‘targeted advertisement’, you will receive credit or coupons. The machines can accept glass, #1 plastics, and cans. This of course takes me back 20 years to when I used to collect glass bottles to take to the local store to get a dollar or two ($.10 a bottle). In the US only a few states still have cash deposits on bottles now, so other than not wanting to destroy the world, there isn’t a lot of incentive to recycle. If Envirobank’s test goes well in Australia hopefully we will see these reverse vending machines next to the coin counting machines at local stores.
3 Replies to “Reverse Vending Machines…yes please”
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I count 11 state w/ bottle deposits and 7 with campaigns to start new ones.
http://www.bottlebill.org/legislation/usa.htm
Why are people in the US lazy? In skandinavia they have this arrangement and when you go to the grocerystore you bring all your bottles to a machine similar to this and then get money back (rouglhy 0.15USD). Saves the envorinment, bottles does not litter and it is nice to get rid of the bottles
Like John said there are states where bottle returns have incentives or are moving toward them (I will leave Barb to talk about the ups and downs of Bottle Bills). I think this should be an issue for bottling companies as opposed to the government. It would seem that recycling materials (especially glass and aluminum) would save money and resources, but most likely it is cheaper for bottlers to buy back materials from state supported recycling initiatives than to pick-up materials themselves (no research to back that up). Ah, the almighty $$.