One of New Zealand’s first reverse vending machines for recycling cans and plastic bottles began operating on the University of Otago campus yesterday.
Instead of putting money into a machine which then dispenses drinks, people put empty cans and plastic bottles into the new machine and receive discount vouchers to cut the cost of future drinks.
A wide range of drinks, including bottled water, juices and carbonated beverages, are involved in a joint campaign between the university and drinks manufacturer Frucor Suntory to encourage recycling.
University chief operating officer Stephen Willis welcomed the recycling initiative.
Otago University Students Association administrative vice-president Georgia Mischefski-Gray said the machine, located in The Link, was a positive development.
University sustainability office head Ray O’Brien said five million plastic bottles had been recycled in just over a year when a supermarket chain had introduced reverse vending machines in five of its outlets in Britain in 2018.
Worldwide, the sale of drinks in plastic bottles totalled about $480 billion in 2016, but fewer than half were recycled.
The rest ended up in landfills, oceans or rivers, littered the landscape, or were burnt, he said.
