A vending machine that doles out rewards

Singapore

MEET the "reverse vending machine".

Feed it with used cans and bottles and it will reward you with discount coupons, along with the good feeling of having done something to save the environment.

This machine is a key feature of the recycling programme run by Fraser and Neave (F&N).

The company has worked with FairPrice, Frasers Centrepoint Malls and tech start-up Incon Green to install such machines near FairPrice supermarkets.

F&N hopes that these machines would encourage Singaporeans to adopt an eco-conscious lifestyle by offering them a convenient - and rewarding - way to recycle used cans and bottles.

Jennifer See, general manager of F&N Foods, said: "At F&N, we believe that simple green habits can be encouraged and developed successfully over time, and can help save the environment and the world we live in."

Users insert used cans or bottles - with the bar code facing up - into the machine, which then identifies and sorts these items. For every five bottles or cans recycled, customers are rewarded with a 50-cent coupon, which can be used to offset payment for products in the Ice Mountain range, a brand in the F&N portfolio.

One such machine has been installed at Waterway Point, a mall in Punggol that has been awarded the Green Mark Gold Plus by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).

Other machines have been installed near FairPrice supermarkets at Yew Tee Point and in Bukit Merah Central.

Incon Green chief executive Jack Lee said some 5,000 bottles and cans have been deposited at the three locations since the launch of the programme.

The vending machines at these three locations will be there for another two to four months.

Apart from putting up these vending machines, F&N works with the Tzu Chi Foundation and environmental club of schools. The company provides these organisations with a manual crusher machine to help recycle plastic bottles.