Abstract for ASEH 2006.
This poster will outline how the Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) for the return of empty bottles and cans in grocery stores changed from an infrastructural technology to a global environmental machine. In the 1970s, many countries around the world enacted bottle bills to prevent littering. Consumers were given a refund for every bottle and can they returned to the grocer. The RVM was constructed to help grocers deal with backrooms overflowing with empty bottles. Due to high scrap aluminum prices, the incentives for recycling were primarily economic. When the scrap aluminum price dropped dramatically in 1986, the RVM’s relationship to the customers and the environment had to be refashioned. Tomra, the leading manufacturer of RVMs, changed the RVM from a backroom solution to a global environmental product. The poster will show how changing attitudes toward the environment were reflected in the RVM’s design and presentation.
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