![Aldi-Pfandrückgabeautomat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Aldi-Pfandr%C3%BCckgabeautomat.JPG)
A reverse vending machine (RVM) is a
machine
A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...
that allows a person to insert a used or empty
glass bottle
A glass bottle is a bottle made from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 200 millilitres and 1.5 litres. Common uses for glass bottles include food condiments, soda, liq ...
,
plastic bottle
A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from v ...
, or
aluminum can
An Aluminum can (British English: Tin can) is a single-use container for packaging made primarily of aluminum.
It is commonly used for food and beverages such as milk and soup but also for products such as oil, chemicals, and other liquids. Globa ...
in exchange for a reward. After inserting the
recyclable
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
item, it is then compacted, sorted, and analyzed according to the number of ounces, materials, and brand using the
universal product code
The Universal Product Code (UPC or UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used worldwide for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along w ...
on the bottle or can.
Once the item has been scanned and approved, it is then crushed and sorted into the proper storage space for the classified material.
Upon processing the item, the machine rewards people with incentives, such as cash or coupons.
The first
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
of a reverse vending machine was established in 1972 by
TOMRA
TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as
reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries. With over 82,000 ( RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recy ...
.
With
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
s increasingly adopting policies concerning
recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
and
sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
, reverse vending machines have become the standard in areas with stringent recycling policies.
To date, there are more than one hundred thousand RVMs spread globally, located in countries including the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
History
On 13 September 1920, the first
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
for an ‘Empty Container Return and Handling Machine’ was registered in America using a coin return as compensation by Elmer Jones and Sue Walker.
This machine was referred to as a "Bottle Return Machine" (BRM) during that time.
The first working BRM took approximately thirty years from the first patent to be invented and
manufactured
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a rang ...
.
This whole process was conducted by "Wicanders from Sweden," with the machine being used throughout the 1950s.
In 1962, an evolved "Automatic Bottle Return Machine" was established by Aage Tveitan.
After the invention, the machine was manufactured en-masse by the innovator’s firm Arthur Tveitan ASA in Norway and distributed worldwide.
In 1994, a three-in-one machine focused on
bottle recycling
Bottles are able to be recycled and this is generally a positive option. Bottles are collected via kerbside collection or returned using a bottle deposit system. Currently just over half of plastic bottles are recycled globally. About 1 million ...
was conceived by Kansmacker and is still being used today in some states within the U.S.
In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, the Reverse Vending Corporation established the first independent return ready Reverse Vending Machines.
In 2018, RVM Systems paid for the
asset
In financial accountancy, financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value ...
s and
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
s of the United Kingdom’s top reverse vending company, Reverse Vending Corporation.
Now these machines are standard across the United Kingdom.
Operation
The operations of the reverse vending machine (RVM) are relatively straightforward in that when the recycler brings the used
beverage bottle to the machine, a "receiving opening" is designed precisely to accept the bottles.
The opening ensures that the device can take only one container at a time.
However, on older systems of the RVM, the recycler has to open a small door on the machine placing the container in a pan before the door closes, with the process being repeated all over again.
After that, the recycled bottle automatically turns and is then scanned by a
UPC (“Universal Product Code”) scanner.
The scanner’s primary purpose is to scan the UPC located within the recycled container.
The UPC system is different from the previous methods RVMs used which analyzed the shape and form of the item while using other identification constraints to ensure the container is matched against the system’s database substituting the
barcode
A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...
.
Up-to-date machines utilize
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
as the contemporary "recognition layer" rather than other identification segments.
Aco Recycling is the first company to develop AI Recognition Module for Reverse Vending Machines, machines has been already deployed to deposit and non deposit countries. After the recycled item is scanned and matched to the system’s database, it is then considered an approved item.
Recyclable items are quickly processed and crushed to ensure size reduction, to prevent leaks of any liquids inside the bottles, and finally, to boost the machine’s storage
volume
Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The de ...
.
In addition, refillable containers are manually handled and returned to the bottling firms.
According to a study by the
New York City Housing Authority
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...
, participants reported that the reverse vending machine was a more flexible option for recycling and convenience purposes.
Furthermore, these machines are seen as a contributor to the
circular economy
A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...
as people are motivated to participate in recycling initiatives due to monetary benefits.
Mechanics
The reverse vending machine attempts to solve the
efficiency
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...
problem of sorting waste to enhance the recycling process.
Reverse vending machines work by permitting the user to insert the recycled containers within a specific
aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An opt ...
inside the machine.
Consequently, the machine compresses the bottle to reduce its size and allow more of them to be stored within it before they are collected and returned to the
bottling company
A bottling company is a commercial enterprise whose output is the bottling of beverages for distribution.
Many bottling companies are franchisees of corporations such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo who distribute the beverage in a specific geographic ...
.
After the machine compresses the items, it sorts them for storage purposes, after which they will be delivered to companies responsible for recycling them.
![Reverse_vending_machines_in_Moscow_Pyaterochka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Reverse_vending_machines_in_Moscow_Pyaterochka.jpg)
When the machine receives a container from the user, the item is placed in the "loading pad," usually in various forms, including a pan form or a wheel.
In the pan form, containers are sorted through the use of the barcode scanner.
A particular section of the RVM utilizes software to match the container to the database.
There is also hardware that entails an implanted sensor that works hand in hand with other parts to ensure the machine works effectively.
Considering the RVM entails an intelligent device that constantly interacts with recyclers,
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
support hand in hand with
technical maintenance is usually necessary to ensure
efficiency
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...
.
Demand
Waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
is being accumulated at a growing pace all over the world, causing the need for new recycling solutions like reverse vending machines.
In 2016 alone, over four hundred billion bottles were dispersed globally to consumers, with a little less than half of those bottles being amassed for recycling.
With product-focused collection and recycling programs outperforming traditional recycling methods, in states like
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
or
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, governments are increasingly looking to
innovate
Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...
in the sector by adopting
government funding
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
grant programs to help supply more machines throughout
urban area
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
s.
Locations
North America
In North America, the adoption of recycling is relatively low; only 9.2% of the plastics manufactured in the United States were recycled.
Product-focused recycling and collection programs are being implemented in states like
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
and
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, where reverse vending machines are starting to be implemented.
Europe
In Europe,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
is among the leading countries in recycling.
In Norway alone, there exists over three thousand seven hundred reverse vending machines and more than ten thousand stations where the trash, including bottles, could be received.
Norway offers relatively high monetary incentives for the returned bottles, thus resulting in high recycling rates.
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
is another country with high recycling rates based on the
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
for
liters
The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...
generated.
More than one hundred and forty grocery stores owned by UK-based retailer
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
are planning to add RVMs.
Moreover,
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
has committed to making all of its branded products 100% recyclable by 2025 and spearheaded an RVM campaign set to debut in early 2022.
Moreover, new technological development are increasingly being implemented in Europe.
In October 2021,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
partnered with
TOMRA
TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as
reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries. With over 82,000 ( RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recy ...
to launch the multi-feeding RVM, the TOMRA R1, enabling recyclers to deposit more than one hundred used
beverage containers
Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...
into RVMs in one go.
Moreover,
TOMRA
TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as
reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries. With over 82,000 ( RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recy ...
is expanding its reach as a global RVM leader in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and has committed to donating five
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
cents to raise money for vital
medical equipment
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
in
Apeldoorn, Netherlands, with
TOMRA’s first publicly available R1.
TOMRA’s R1 machine exhibits higher recycling deposit return rates, achieving 98% returns in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and 92% in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
.
Other parts of Europe are continuing to adopt RVMs through the use of both public and private joint ventures.
For example, the Russian food
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
er, X5 Group, initiated a partnership with
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
in
Pyaterochka, Moscow, to supply RVMs in neighborhood areas with high foot traffic.
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
has also supported the use of RVMs in Moscow in 2019, where they installed seven in
Perekrestok and three in Moscow, through a pilot project to promote plastic collection and recycling initiatives, by issuing 10% coupons for
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
products in the respective storefronts.
As a result, these respective countries’ public and private sectors have partnered to partake in the recycling effort to forego paying extra taxes and contributing to RVM supply and direct investment in the space to get other entrepreneurs involved in the space despite its cost constraints.
In February 2022, an
Aldi
Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...
store in Ireland opened setup a RVM in
Mitchelstown
Mitchelstown () is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3,740. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains, 12 km south-west of the Mitchelstown Caves, 28 km from Cahir, 50& ...
, County Cork.
Asia
In Asia, Russia has illustrated a focus on RVMs with one of its most significant food retailers joining forces with a global beverage producer to enact RVMs in numerous shops across Russia with a discount coupon of 15% to reduce waste in Russia.
Russia’s neighbor
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
has also recently embraced the idea of using reverse vending machines to help in their waste management processes.
Finally,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
first introduced the RVMs to help recycle containers in 2016.
With India's adoption of RVMs, its municipalities identified the top locations for RVMs and broke them into five categories.
The first category was close to
neighborhoods
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
, while the second category was in
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s.
The third category was in
bus stop
A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...
s, the fourth category in
public areas, while the final category was in
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
s.
Having implemented the deposit return system in 2018,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
was able to collect 77% of the recyclable waste by returning the deposit fee to the end user. Thanks to this system, Israel encourages people to recycle, which is a sustainable project. produced by Aco Recycling constitutes the majority of the machines used in Israel. The fact that it is preferred more with crusher systems and artificial intelligence increases the recycling rate.
Advantages
The reverse vending machine has several environmental and economic benefits. A person can be rewarded a monetary gain or other rewards by
disposing of their
waste
Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...
, such as
plastic bottle
A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from v ...
s.
This economic benefit is an incentive for people to dispose of their waste correctly.
With
landfill
A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
s receiving 27 million tons of
plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...
in 2018, the RVM attempts to combat this by providing a
convenient proper disposal method. The machine’s design allows the user to only insert the item in, and no other action is required. This added convenience benefit enables the RVM to correctly sort the waste, so it does not end up dumped in the environment. One of the focal points of having an RVM rather than a traditional recycling bin is the use of a
crusher
A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, sand or rock dust.
Crushers may be used to reduce the size, or change the form, of waste materials so they can be more easily disposed of or recycled, or to reduce ...
which allows for a larger capacity of storing waste.
Disadvantages
Despite the efficiencies found in reverse vending machines, their high acquisition costs are a disadvantage, as machines typically cost more than $6,000.
Due to these costs, private business owners typically cannot afford to acquire and manage the machines.
As a result, government-affiliated and
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
interest groups have worked with companies like
TOMRA
TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as
reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries. With over 82,000 ( RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recy ...
to initiate policies and
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
programs to promote the use of reverse vending machines to the public.
As more
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
s and private businesses begin to enter the RVM market, costs are expected to decrease and become a more common alternative to
traditional recycling methods.
Aside from an economic perspective, RVMs are subject to constant checkups, updates, and
maintenance
Maintenance may refer to:
Biological science
* Maintenance of an organism
* Maintenance respiration
Non-technical maintenance
* Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English
* Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doctrine ...
procedures which enable the
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
software to continue scanning and collecting data on the recyclable bottles.
Despite the convenience that reverse vending machines offer their users, the monetary rewards may be perceived as too insignificant to
incentivize
In general, incentives are anything that persuade a person to alter their behaviour. It is emphasised that incentives matter by the basic law of economists and the laws of behaviour, which state that higher incentives amount to greater levels of ...
recycling from the general
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
.
Future developments
Researchers at the
Swiss-German University have created a machine that takes both cans and plastic bottles. The device will have an "
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
and push-button installed as well as a commercial beverages database holding a daily log of recycling activity.
The RVM market is expected to grow from $343.6 million in 2018 to over $685.1 million by 2025 as countries embrace
waste management
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...
initiatives.
See also
*
Circular economy
A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...
*
Container-deposit legislation
Container-deposit legislation (also known as a container-deposit scheme, deposit-refund system or scheme, deposit-return system, or bottle bill) is any law that requires the collection of a monetary deposit on beverage containers (refillable or ...
*
Plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...
*
Recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reverse Vending Machine
Container deposit legislation
Recycling
Vending machines