Insert Here: Empties Instead of Coins

Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter
Sydney Morning Herald — 29 April 2009

Crushed... student Ellie Greenwood tries the new recycling machine at the International Grammar School in Ultimo

SYDNEY is about to get a new version of the cash-for-cans system, with hundreds of ‘reverse vending machines’ to be installed in the city this year.

They look similar to vending machines but instead of dispensing drinks, they accept cans or bottles, crush them and issue the user a discount shopping docket. Machines will be placed in shopping malls and some other public spaces, and are expected to boost recycling rates at the expense of littering.

The company behind the machines, Envirobank, claims they will cut carbon emissions by sending clean, crushed material straight to recycling depots, rather than it having to be trucked to a waste processing plant.

“The material is sorted inside the machine, so it can go straight to be recycled, which bypasses having to be sorted at the tip,” said the company's managing director, Narelle Anderson.

The machines are able to scan the bar code of a can or bottle and can play a short, related advertisement on LCD screens.

So if you drop a Coca-Cola can into the slot, you could wind up watching a Coke ad — or one for Pepsi, depending on who is paying for the machine.

The International Grammar School in Ultimo became the first in Australia to install a machine yesterday, though it will not carry advertising. Instead, the LCD screen will broadcast messages about health, the environment and road safety, and students will accrue house points by recycling their rubbish.