Big Dumb Recycling Machine.Posted on 27 May, 2008

[12 September 2008 – Suddenly, this post is generating several hits per day

from Venezuela. Could someone explain why?]

A couple of weeks ago Shanghai Daily reported that China’s first automatic “drinking

bottle recycling machine” had been installed on Nanjing Road for RMB 30,000

(US$4290). The idea is simple: after finishing your canned or bottled beverage, you stick

it into the machine, which then reads the bar code, accepts it, and pays you RMB .1

(US$.015)

Now, one might reasonably ask: why does China need machines to collect bottles and

cans when there are tens of millions of hard-working scrap peddlers who’ll do the work

for less than the cost of the new machine? Well, according to Shanghai’s city fathers, as

reported in the Shanghai Daily, the idea is to put the scrap peddlers out of business

because, quoting Shanghai Daily, “they have a negative impact on the city’s image.”

As longtime readers of this blog know, I love and respect China’s hard-working

entrepreneurial scrap peddlers; they are my scrap brothers. But, being fair minded, I

thought it only right that I give the machine a chance to prove itself. Perhaps it could

make an argument for its superiority? So, late on a recent afternoon, I donned my Scrap

hat (see photos, below), and ventured onto Nanjing Road to give this new contraption

the Shanghai Scrap Once Over. Let’s have a look, shall we?

A couple of quick, off-the-bat observations. First, if the city’s goal was to achieve

something environmentally friendly, this phone booth-sized metal device packed with

electronics is an abject failure. Second, unless you actually go up to this device and

read the instructions, there’s absolutely nothing self-evident about its purpose or

function. That is, it fails the ‘what is it?’ test. And, on a related note, “Reverse Vending

Machine” doesn’t help, and isn’t nearly as clever, or self-evident, as the manufacturer

obviously thinks.

But – you must be asking – how does it work? Fear not: Shanghai Scrap arrived with

plastic bottles and a couple of aluminum cans to determine just that.

To begin, I inserted a Nongfu Springs plastic water bottle into the hulking device’s …

mouth? This is not a trivial point. It’s not enough to just slip your bottles past the lip of

the machine. You’ve actually got to shove them in there a good six inches or so, up to

your elbow, until they rest upon two rollers. Then, quite suddenly (while my arm was in

it) the rollers begin to spin, and as they do, an orange light – presumably a bar code

reader – searches for identifying features on the bottle (meaning, the machine can’t

identify bottles from which labels have been peeled!).

Anyway, my fully labeled Nongfu Springs bottle spun and spun and spun, and the

orange lights, they flashed and flashed and flashed. And while all that was happening, a

crowd which began to assemble around me, trying to figure out what I was doing with

this big green can-like thing that nobody had ever noticed before … and telling me to

stop sticking my arm in it, because I might get hurt.

Note, in the above photo, the man in the yellow shirt to my left (I’m the guy in the Scrap

hat). After a couple of minutes of watching my fruitless efforts at making the make the

Reverse Vending Machine accept my bottle, Mr. Yellow Shirt inserted his hand into the

device, examined the bottle, said, “Thank you” and promptly walked away with it. When

I found him, a moment later, he was seated on a bench – beside the bag of bottles that

he’d been collecting from people who’d also failed at their efforts with the Reverse

Vending Machine. That is to say, the peddlers took the day, against the machine.

A couple of final, quick notes on this device. First, unlike its problems with plastic

bottles, the device had absolutely no problem identifying the aluminum can offerings

that I brought it. Big surprise, that: aluminum is worth significantly more than plastic.

Second, Shanghai Daily quotes an official by the name of Cao, with the Nanjing Road

Pedestrian Street Office as claiming that the Reverse Vending Machine “received more

than 1700 bottle during the three day [May Day] holiday.” Which works out to a bottle

every three minutes or so, for three straight days.

I don’t think so.

Finally, a question: Can anyone out there think of another instance where a government

unit in China has installed a technology with the express purpose of killing a labor-

intensive business? I can’t. But there must be an example out there.

Anyway, unlike Shanghai Daily, I refuse to provide instructions on where to find the Big

Dumb Recycling Machine. Instead, save your cans and bottles for the folks who really

need them: your local Chinese scrap peddlers.

[I know somebody who knows somebody who has visited with the Big Dumb Recycling

Machine’s manufacturer. I have contacted this person for further impressions, and will

update just as soon as I hear something.]

[UPDATE 5/28: Maxiewawa made a short film clip of his (successful!) attempt to have

the machine accept a bottle, and you can find it over here.]http://shanghaiscrap.com/2008/05/big-dumb-recycling-machine/#more-739