At a local supermarket here in Mexikoplatz, Berlin, I watched a woman use a very odd, but very high-tech recycling machine… a self-use one!
A picture of it below…
Essentially the user loads in their plastic bottles, glass bottles/jars into the machine through the chute, the machine rotates it to work out what it is, and then either accepts or rejects it. If accepted, it provides a list of what you’ve recycled along with the money you’ll receive in return via the LCD! Those accepted are then stored in 2 large locked bins beneath – I’m assuming one for glass, one for plastic.
What a great idea! Very clever indeed… No doubt the thinking is something like this…
People will use their reusable shopping bags, load them with their recyclables, take them to the supermarket and recycle them prior to shopping. They can then use the money they’ve just received to pay for their new groceries and take them home in the bags they brought to take back the bottles and so-on. Ingenious! And most importantly, it’s easy and makes total sense and therefore I really think people would do this.
Unfortunately I don’t have any further information on the machine or if they’re common or whether they’re new or not. Google didn’t tell me much either. They’re new to me… so if you know anything else, leave a comment.
They have one of these at Parabanks! Wonder why you didn’t know that He He xx
Forgot to mention that they are quite common in Germany which is where the SA Govt. got the idea from! If the one at Parabanks is successful(whyWouldn’t it be?) the will get more. Please do not ask me how I know so much about rubbish!
Well there you go… good work SA Government! Thanks Lisa!
Oh so the SA Govt is back to stealing ideas from Germany again, eh? [cough] O-Bahn [/cough]