Returning empty deposit bottles is a pain. All that sorting, schlepping and feeding the bottle return machines, and wow— you've got a whole 95¢.
Bottle Deposit Slot Machines add a new, nearly exciting dimension. Insert the bottle, grab the lever, give it a yank, and watch the wheels spin in the window. Two lemons and a watermelon--nada. Three cherries--jackpot.
The odds and payouts would mirror those of the nickel and dime slot machines, with a voucher payable at the register. And then there's the machine owner's take, which pays for the machines and yields a profit.
Now, if we can just get the deli counter to provide free drinks and hors d'oeuvres . . .-- YoDaveG, Apr 20 2006 I'd use it.+-- xandram, Apr 20 2006 Genius.-- GutPunchLullabies, Apr 20 2006 Put 'em right next to the liquer store, and you've got yourself a scam!-- Letsbuildafort, Apr 20 2006 This is a good idea :) - Except the machine will have to be huge, or you will have to empty it constantly. Even a 100 beer bottles take up quite a bit of room!-- Omnithesis, Apr 20 2006 Make it lead to an underground storage facility. Anyways, soda-machines can hold 720+ cans, or about 400+ 20oz bottles.-- DesertFox, Apr 20 2006 Haven't seen any machines locally (no deposit on cans around me), but in every deposit state that I've lived in, there have been machines. Usually, they scan the bar code to see if it's an acceptable can.-- Freefall, Apr 20 2006 There are extra charges on bottles to provide an incentive to recycle. This will get gamblers and degenerate gamblers (the worst kind of gamblers) recycling, but why would the rest of you save your cans when 9 of 10 times you'll get nothing back. How bout just the option of cash value or a round of slots.-- miggavin, Apr 21 2006 //Except the machine will have to be huge, or you will have to empty it constantly. Even a 100 beer bottles take up quite a bit of room!//
The machine crushes the glass and even separates the clear glass from the colored ones for easier recycling. The ones for plastic bottles actually kind of shred them, I guess to let the air out if you left the cap on. So they hold quite a bit.-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, Apr 21 2006 Quality! it will get the alcoholics gambling and the gamblers drinking. Make the jackpot a whore and you could have a great saturday night between the BDSM.. and the bottle shop-- wongmeister, Apr 21 2006 excellent idea.. I think you might get a pretty weird audience turning up if you advertise your free BDSM facilities.-- neilp, Apr 22 2006 Recycling crushed glass is nearly pointless. It takes almost as much energy to remelt broken bottles as it does to make them from scratch. And sand isn't exactly a scarce resource.-- Aq_Bi, Apr 22 2006 It could become a new 'healthier' addiction for gamblers! but later on perhaps 'bottle recyclers annonomous' would be a real possiblity-- tropical_funk, Apr 24 2006 "sand isn't exactly a scarce resource", but landfill space is.-- half, Apr 25 2006 // remember seeing a recycling game (on TV) where kids were shooting their empty soda cans out of pneumatic cannons// [half], That was a few Earth-day episodes of "Wild and Crazy Kids." [Afroassault] can tell you all about that show.-- Letsbuildafort, Apr 25 2006 Dave pulls the handle and scores a jackpot in croissants. I think this idea deserves one of krelnik's WTAGIPBAN thingies.-- RayfordSteele, Apr 25 2006 Personally, I think it's cool that there are still people who can type "BDSM" and not immediately read it That Way. :) Anyway, as for the idea, it's brilliant! It could also work to encourage electronics recycling.-- allterrainbrain, Apr 25 2006 Great idea. It'd solve my mates problem .. he's a litterbug AND addicted to slot machines. [+]-- kuupuuluu, Apr 25 2006 What if you'd still receive the usual fee minus 5%, and you have a 1 in 100 chance to win five times the usual fee instead? It would even out for the machine owner, wouldn't cost too much to implement and could still be an incentive to recycle.-- Forthur, Jan 21 2007 I'm SURE this has been baked here in New Zealand, years ago. For cans. I remember at BP petrol stations, a big machine - you didn't win cash, but you had a chance to get a voucher for a choc bar or soft drink.
Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.-- the_jxc, Jan 22 2007 Just have the machine pay off the jackpots by putting out bottles.
put in a bottle
pull the lever
win 4 shopping carts full of bottles.
(meanwhile the machine crushes the metal and plastic and stores it easily.)-- popbottle, Apr 27 2014 //Recycling crushed glass is nearly pointless. It takes almost as much energy to remelt broken bottles as it does to make them from scratch.//
Reusing bottles is definitely preferrable in an ideal system, but recycled glass (cullet) is an essential part of making new glass, at least by some processes. Furthermore, there _is_ apparently an energy saving: "Every metric ton (1,000 kg) of waste glass recycled into new items saves 315 kilograms (694 lb) of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere during the creation of new glass."-- Loris, Apr 28 2014 I just put my recyclables out by the dumpster for some unfortunate scavenger to take, but if this machine was available I'd play it. And I don't gamble, not having any luck for it.-- normzone, Apr 28 2014 free BDSM facilities [+]-- Voice, Apr 28 2014 random, halfbakery