The Reverse Vending Machine is a self-service kiosk able to accept bottles and packaging boxes that need to be recycled.
The kiosk is based on two modules: the acceptor module and the compactor module.
The acceptor module comprises all components which are necessary for recognizing beverage containers, checking the deposit amount of the item as well as paying and printing a voucher. In the basic model the recognition of the items is made by a barcode reader which checks the EAN codes of the beverage containers. It is possible to store up to 8000 EAN codes of beverage containers. The EAN codes can be entered either manually by using the keyboard or it can be loaded using different interfaces such as a PC or a chip card. For refund either a voucher printer or a coin hopper for up to three different coins can be implemented. To simplify accounting different accounting and statistics programs are available. The whole unit can be exchanged easily and without using tools.
The compactor module can be included in the RVM below the acceptor module. Using the compactor module the volume of the beverage containers can be reduced to approx. 30%. Additionally the compactor module contains a sorting unit. With this sorting unit containers can already be separated in the machine, e.g. metal containers can be separated from plastics or disposable containers from reusable ones.