Using Reverse Vending Machines for Recycling

Reverse vending machines are a convenient way for consumers to return their empty beverage containers. They can be installed in practical locations, such as supermarkets and collection centers.

Getting Power from Waves

3:48 minutes

The Health Benefits of Vibration Training

2:12 minutes

Removing Scratches with a Machine Buffer

4:46 minutes

Transcript

Using Reverse Vending Machines for Recycling Female: There are roughly 700 billion containers currently in circulation around the world. And as demand for drinks increases so did the mountains of plastic containers, cans and bottles. In Europe, less than 20% of containers are recycled. Indeed, the world itself is often misunderstood. Morthen Johannessen: In our definition, recycling has to be part with a close loop where it all start with collection, all the containers and getting it back. And then the whole processing down the value chain so to speak and hopefully, being able to use that material in manufacturing a new container again. Female: In Norway, 90% of containers are returned to supermarkets so they can be reuse, refilled or turn into something else. Hands-On finds out what makes the Norwegian so eco-friendly. Erling Lich and his daughters knock back their drinks at the family home in the south of Oslo. Male: Oh, I would say we go through about five, six, seven bottles of Coke and the same in cans and bottles. And after we leave empty, I put them in a basket and leave the basket in the kitchen until it’s full. When it’s full, I have my daughters sort them out. Every now and then of course, we give the money to them, so they are very keen on making sure that they are all empty even though instead of half empty, they have to pour out to get their own Krones. So I'm trying to keep an eye for them every now and again. And on the last five, six years, we've realized the amount of money we can save on it, 120, 150 Krones a week. That amount of money we get back from whatever we drink, it’s about $20.00 I would imagine. By taking it to the shop, you really see that you get your money back. If you got to take it somewhere else, you don’t. That meant we go back to the liquor store to give their wine bottles. There are too much hassle and that really shows the efficiency of having the deposit machines in the super stores that we go and buy our food. Female: Located at the supermarket entrance, the Tomra Reverse vending machine makes life easy for customer and storeowner, bottle is going and the machine sticks a coupon back out. This can then be cashed in for money or a discount. Male: Today we've got 44 Krones. This is a quite nice deductible so today’s shopping was quite cheap. This is good. Female: The Tomra machine may look simple but high-tech, 3D and its recognition technology ensures the customer gets back the right money. At the Tomra factory, they spend hours checking the equipment. Terje Hanserud: In this area, we assemble some of the most critical part in the laser scanning equipment at the three dimensional recognition of crates and refillable bottles. So we have to identify all the different crates and all the different bottles that exist in the market. They may have a different deposit attached to them. Some of them maybe non-deposit and we have to identify each item to give our customers the right refund back automatically. You can see also how the imaging system works. This is the picture that the machine sees but it sees it with a much higher resolution and also it sees 25 full pictures every second. So this is use for them identifying exactly what kind of bottles or other objects are fitted through the machine. Female: Tomra customizes the machine for different uses. Terje Hanserud: Here’s an example of very small backroom insulation, only a simple collection table. The bottles are just collected here for sorting into crates afterwards. Behind my hair, you can see a much more advance backroom system where bottles are sorted and also put automatically into crates. Empty crates are automatically kept into the system and the bottles are lifted over. And there we see the backside on a can machine and the cans are going through in all of compartments the same space. Female: But if Tomra technologies going to take off, every part of the recycling chain has to be involve. Male: This is not about the consumer’s willingness to recycle or to participate. A consumer’s coming around the world are more than prepared and ready to go, so it’s up to the other place, the retailers, the beverage industry and by having some kind of support and guidance by the authorities in terms of getting that system in place. We are already to go and to participate. Female: With the basic Tomra model costing around $5000.00, how can anyone afford not to invest? Male: And we should look upon this as another competitive advantage. I think this is the sort of the world of tomorrow taking care of our environment, taking care of our customers, taking care for our children of tomorrow.