Swire Coca-Cola quenches thirst for recycling with machines that will collect plastic bottles and put 20 HK cents on your Octopus as a reward

Swire Coca-Cola, a division of Swire Pacific and one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers and distributors worldwide, on Thursday announced the launch of reverse vending machines that will add 20 HK cents to Octopus cards for every plastic bottle accepted by them.

Such machines are common in other markets, said Neil Waters, Swire Coca-Cola’s executive director, who described the roll out as a trial to see how consumer behaviour towards recycling in Hong Kong could be changed. The main question was if 20 HK cents were enough of a reward for people to turn in their plastic bottles.

“Today, the behaviour is not towards recycling, and we are trying to change that,” Waters said. He said he did not know how many plastic bottles the machine would get. “We will accumulate evidence and experience with the machines, and see what happens,” he added.

The machines are activated with the touch of an Octopus card. The empty bottle is entered into a chute – bottles with liquid are recognised and rejected – and then crushed. Each machine can hold up to 400 bottles with 500ML capacity, Waters said. The technology behind the machines was developed by a Hong Kong company and the machines are manufactured by Cornerstone Technologies, a Hong Kong-based green technology company.

“We are seeing if the system is reliable, and then, if we can expand it. We are exploring other activities to collect or reduce plastics,” a Swire Coca-Cola spokeswoman said.

Ten machines will start operating at Discovery Bay Pier in Central, Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, Metro Plaza in Kwai Fong, Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin, The Mills in Tsuen Wan, TKO Plaza in Tseung Kwan O, V City in Tuen Mun and one each in Citygate and HKSKH Tung Chung Integrated Services in Tung Chung.