Columbia Bottle Depots are proud to announce that our Kent Road, Dease Road, and Kamloops Sahali depots are fully automated! This is a very exciting time for recycling as your container experience will be faster and cleaner than ever before – no more sorting!
Reverse Vending Machines
When you walk through the front doors of our automated depots you will see several reverse vending machines.
A reverse vending machine is a machine where people can return empty beverage containers like bottles and cans for recycling. The machine gives back a refund receipt.
This is what makes it a “reverse” vending machine: instead of the user putting in money and getting out a product (like at a snack vending machine), the user puts a product in and gets out a monetary value. The reserve vending machine is safe to operate and intuitive with step-by-step guidance.
Tips For an Easy Visit
- No need to presort your material!
- Container caps may remain on containers, but containers must be empty of all liquid.
- Keep labels on all of your containers.
- Do not crush the containers in any way so that the label scanner can easily process your material.
- Gently place one recycled item in the machine at a time – trying to put in multiple bottles at the same time, or throwing material in, will not work.
- Place any rejected or overly large containers to the side to bring to the customer service area for review by our knowledgeable staff who will credit you for accepted products (visit Accepted Items for more information).
Please visit www.tomra.com to learn more about this amazing technology.
We understand that change can be a little intimidating at first, but please note that our staff are very important to us. We will not tolerate any type of abuse towards them or the automation machines that they work closely with. Thank you for your kindness, patience, and for recycling!