Abstract for ICOHTEC 2007.
The recycling of empty beverage containers is today seen as an environmentally friendly action – as a way consumers can preserve natural resources and prevent littering. But it has not always been like this. This paper will analyze the parallel reconceptualization of empty beverage containers as an environmental problem and the growth of technological infrastructures to handle the recycling of these containers from the 1960s to the present. I will argue that immaterial values like environmentalism have blended with recycling machines and technological infrastructures in order to handle the massive growth of empty beverage containers in the modern consumer society. These recycling systems are designed to make visible the environmental connections while making the messiness of empty bottles invisible.
Specifically, the paper will look at the reverse vending machines (RVMs) used for the consumer return of empty bottles and cans in grocery stores and how these have taken on a shade of green. How have the RVM producers responded to user demands of environmental friendliness? How have technological solutions become integrated into environmental policy? In particular, I will focus on the development of the Resirk and Returpack recycling systems in Norway and Sweden, as well as the changing technologies and corporate identity of the world’s largest RVM producer – Tomra Systems.