News

City of Sydney installs recycling machines

June 27, 2014

The City of Sydney, Australia, is conducting a pilot of two reverse-vending machines that dispense rewards in exchange for empty drink containers.

The reverse-vending machines from Envirobank accept cans and plastic bottles. Users are instructed not to crush the containers, as the machines cannot accept them in that form.

The city says it has tried using recycling bins in public areas, but levels of contamination from unacceptable items such as burger wrappers made it impossible to recycle the materials collected. The machines solve this problem by accepting only items that can be recycled and rejecting anything else.

The machines dispense rewards that include a bus ticket, a draw to receive two passes to the New Year’s Eve fireworks, or 10 cents, which can be donated to Clean-Up Australia, Sydney director of city operations Gary Harding told Eco-Business.

In their first three days of operation, the two machines accepted 10,000 bottles and cans, Harding said.