Introducing: the Reverse Vending Machine

Introducing: the Reverse Vending Machine

It may not be a fantastically new idea but it’s an encouraging new twist to the uphill battle of getting you to recycle.

September 28, 2011 4:12 by kippreport

What’s trending in Dubai these days, you ask? Why ATMs of course…first there was the gold dispensing machine, which debuted in opulent Emirates Palace (which is now being sued for 20M AED for faulty interiors) and now spread across the UAE, including Dubai Mall and the Dubai airport.

And now, in true Dubai-style, the city gets its first reverse vending machine (RVM). Environmental solutions provider Averda has launched a new recycling initiative—an ATM that gives users vouchers every time they deposit recyclables (from tin cans to plastic bottles).

Averda brings this machine from Lebanon to the UAE and plans to roll it out to Saudi Arabia later this year. Stations in Oman and Qatar will follow in 2012.

Aha! You say, you’ve seen something similar before? Cans for coins scheme something or the other some place when you were a kid?

Well Kipp can only say good for you! That must mean you’ll know exactly what to do when you get to the machine and deposit those cans and bottles for incentives.

It may not be a completely out of this world new idea. But Kipp does recognise the efforts this enviro-company is doing to get some attention. (It certainly caught ours.)

The reality is that environmental concerns feature very little on our priority list and its gimmicks like this RVM that push the agenda up a notch—at least to some degree.

It seems as well that the chaps at Averda are pragmatic about the RVM as they also see this as a vehicle for advertising. The company has partnered with Rotana Media Services’ Out-of-Home arm HyperMedia to handle the advertising rights for the RVM venture in the region.

Advertising revenue aside, will the reverse vending machine convince more people to get into the recycling habit?