Environment

Reverse Vending Machines give users cash for their empties

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The Revendo 8000 Reverse Vending Machine

Just a few days ago, we told you about a vending machine that dispenses ice cream in return for smiles. Well, if you like cold, hard cash better than cold, soft ice cream, here’s another dispenser-with-a-twist you might be interested in - the Reverse Vending Machine (RVM), that takes in recyclable bottles and cans, and gives out cash in return. RVMs have recently been introduced at the Centro Hollywood shopping mall in Adelaide, as part of the state of South Australia’s effort to promote recycling and reduce littering.

The process starts with consumers placing their empties in the machine’s feed unit. Each container is identified by an imaging camera, and then (if accepted) compacted and sorted into a built-in bin. From there, the material can go straight to a recycling depot. As part of South Australia’s Container Deposit Legislation, the consumer is entitled to a 10-cent deposit for each container. The RVM gives them this cash in the form of a receipt, which they can exchange for currency by scanning it into an adjacent cash machine.

Wincor Nixdorf, manufacturer of the Revendo 7000 and 8000 RVMs, has partnered with Australia’s Statewide Recycling for the project.

“South Australia has a very progressive attitude towards recycling and this is a clear sign that technology will play a major part by encouraging people to recycle at or around shopping malls or other retail locations," said Statewide GM Edward Nixon. "It is a lot more convenient to recycle and receive a deposit refund when you are on the way to the shops.”

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11 comments
Ra
These have been around in Germany for years. All of the beer/milk/yogurt/whatever bottles are returned and used about 30 times (Germans are so GREEN! But really, it\'s just cheaper), and the way of getting them returned is to make customers pay a deposit on them. This is the money you get back when you use the machine to turn in your glass. This is not NEWs.
colinshark
Yeah, these have been in Michigan grocery stores for over a decade. They collect or crush glass, aluminum, and plastic bottles. Payouts are received at a cash register.
Facebook User
Has been around in Holland for over 25 years. Just shows how much behind some countries are in reuse and recycling ;-(
es-wmg
I have seen similar recycle / pay out vending machines on Long Island, NY for 6 to 7 years at least.
dion.teles
Those machines were common in supermaket in France, 1986! Now really new... Here in Brazil, you just present your empty bottle to the market clerk and get a cupon. Not high tech, but very pratical.
Brian R
Just like everyone else said... what\'s the big deal here? We\'ve had recycling machines here in the US for over 20 years. I remember using them when I was a kid in the 80\'s. When you buy the original product, you pay a deposit per can/bottle, then you get it back when you recycle it. Nothing new!
Adam Nightingale
We don\'t have any \'paid\' recycling programs in Victoria (Melbourne) - South Australia is the only state in Australia. That\'s not to say that we don\'t have a household/council recycling programs with regular weekly pick-ups, we just don\'t need to be paid to recycle ;)
Mr Stiffy
Now you uneducated foreign types.... this is very advanced for the retarded Australians - I mean we only head of Electricity a while back and despite the protests of the adherants of the King James bible saying, \"Thou Shalt not suffer a witch to live\" and accusations of heresy and sorcery - there are plans to bring Electricity to Australia one day soon - after the ministers have finished dispatching the fire sky demons of the Montgolfier brothers with their pitch forks.
I mean you can tell we are up with the modern times by using a blatantly whoreish commercial name for a town mall such as \"Centro Hollywood\" shopping mall in Adelaide.
Not that it\'s the tacky \"our gummit are $lut$\" for a piece of cheap recognition in the back end of Australia - that gets my dander up; it\'s the fact that you get issues a coupon from the machine, to take to another machine for scanning to get some kind of currency.
One would think the stupid t***s, would have made the same machine dole out 10c, 50c or $1 coins from the same machine.....
Or are we the ingenius kids going to make our earnings at 10c per 10 minutes, instead of by $50 a bag at the recyclers?
agulesin
OK you\'ve all had them for years but don\'t forget Gizmag is also read by those in other countries around the world who haven\'t yet got an efficient recycling program... This type of item is \'news\' and inspiration to them...
(a reader from TURKEY)
Angela Mauro
Does anybody know where they can be bought? or if there is a website for these types of machines...Thankyou