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Smart Reverse Vending Machine Using ESP32 for Waste Management
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Researchers built a smart vending machine that does the opposite of selling snacks—you feed it plastic bottles and cans, and it rewards you with coupons for recycling. This matters because less plastic waste piling up in landfills and waterways means less of it breaking down into microplastics that can end up in our food, water, and eventually our bodies. While this is just a working prototype rather than a large-scale study, it points to a practical way tech could make recycling easier and more appealing for everyday people.
Plastic waste has become one of the major environmental concerns due to its increasing accumulation in landfills and water bodies. Conventional waste collection methods often fail to encourage people to recycle recyclable materials effectively. The proposed Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) is an IoT-enabled smart recycling system designed to automate the collection of recyclable plastic bottles and metal cans while rewarding users through a coupon-based incentive mechanism. The system is built using an ESP32 microcontroller, IR sensor, metal sensor, RFID module, LCD display, buzzer, and Thing Speak cloud platform for real-time monitoring. The system is built using an ESP32 microcontroller, IR sensor, metal sensor, RFID module, LCD display, buzzer, and the Things peak cloud platform. The IR sensor detects the presence of an object, while the metal sensor identifies metallic recyclable items. The ESP32 processes the sensor data and controls the overall operation of the system. After successful validation of the recyclable item, the machine authenticates the user through RFID, generates a reward coupon, and uploads transaction details to Thing Speak for real-time monitoring. The LCD display provides status messages, and the buzzer gives audio feedback to the user. The developed prototype successfully demonstrates an efficient, low-cost, and user-friendly recycling solution that promotes environmental sustainability and supports smart waste management. When a user inserts a recyclable item, the sensors verify its validity. If accepted, the ESP32 processes the data, stores the information on the cloud, and generates a reward coupon for the user. The LCD displays the system status while the buzzer provides audio feedback. The developed prototype successfully demonstrates an efficient, low-cost, and environmentally friendly solution for waste management. The proposed system promotes recycling habits, reduces environmental pollution, and supports smart city initiatives.
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Reverse Vending: A Comprehensive Review of Innovative Approach in Embedded System, Sensing Accuracy, and Sustainability Implications
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This review pulls together a decade of research on "reverse vending machines" — those bottle-return kiosks that use sensors and smart tech to automatically sort and accept recyclables in exchange for money or rewards. The key takeaway: these machines can accurately identify plastic bottles over 95% of the time, and when paired with cash-back incentives, they significantly boost recycling participation in communities. This matters because getting more plastic bottles properly recycled — rather than left to degrade into microplastics that contaminate water, food, and eventually our bodies — is one practical way technology can help reduce our everyday exposure to plastic pollution
Plasthirst: The Potential of Water Dispenser Reverse Vending Machine in Plastic Bottle Waste Management
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Researchers designed and tested Plasthirst, a reverse vending machine prototype that dispenses 200 ml of drinking water for every plastic bottle deposited, finding a near-perfect correlation between bottles deposited and water dispensed and identifying student engagement factors, with recommendations for sensor upgrades and QR-based recycling education to improve the system's efficiency and environmental impact.
Feasibility of Reverse Vending Machine for PET Bottle Recycling in Case of ABC Hypermarket
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This is a duplicate entry for the feasibility study examining reverse vending machines for PET bottle recycling in Thailand, addressing the link between poor PET recovery and microplastic pollution in fine particulate matter. Improving plastic bottle recycling could reduce environmental microplastic loads.
Development of IoT-based Smart Recycling Machine to collect the wasted Non-woven Fabric Face Mask (NFM)
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This study developed an IoT-connected smart recycling machine designed to collect used non-woven face masks and prevent them from entering the environment as microplastic waste. Single-use masks became a major source of microplastic pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic, and automated collection systems could significantly reduce this form of plastic waste.
Feasibility of Reverse Vending Machine for PET Bottle Recycling in Case of ABC Hypermarket
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This feasibility study examines whether reverse vending machines for PET bottle recycling could reduce microplastic pollution in Thailand, where recycling rates are low and microplastic contamination in fine air particulate matter is a growing concern. Improving plastic bottle recovery could reduce fragmentation of PET into microplastics in the environment.
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