PET bottle reverse vending machine by Almorado, Wyzel---[et al.]

• Main Authors: Almorado, Wyzel, Chan, Gary, Fong, Gavin, Huang, Heriberto, Relator, Ronald
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Vending machines
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/8614
• Institution: De La Salle University

The PET bottle waste problem is significant in Metro Manila. Government, the business sector, organizations as well as the locals have joined hands in pursuit of a solution to this problem. A polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling project to be undertaken by Beverage Packaging Specialists, a wholly-owned subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation located in San Fernando, Pampanga is already working since September 2006. This project marks the first time in Asia that food-grade PET bottles will be manufactured from post-consumer bottles. The implementation of the project is in line with the Philippine government's solid waste management program and is also aimed at reducing dependence on imported virgin PET resin used in the production of PET bottles. To aid this project, the San Miguel Corporation PET team has collected more than nine million PET bottles, 8.4 million bottles only in its 2004 campaign--equal to over 23,000 cubic meters of landfill space--as a result of its ongoing recycling campaign. Thus, the design, fabrication, and installation of PET bottle reverse vending machines in various strategic places would contribute to the company and the society in various ways, especially in the nationwide post-consumer PET bottle collection campaign. After exhausting possible design alternatives, the group's proposed machine features a barcode scanner that scans a bottle's barcode,and the computer cross-references it to a stored database. If a match is found, the bottle is then kicked by an electric solenoid into a chute where a pair of perforators and crusher cylinders, powered by an electric motor, is waiting to compress the bottle. A push of a button then would make a printer print for a receipt/coupon and stop the motor as well. After several activities done to test the reliability of the different components of the machine, the results show that it is capable of storing around 350-500 crushed bottles. The compression done by the pair of cylinders is rated to be (36.60≠ 5.15) percent of the bottle's original size.