Environmental Products Corp.

Stanley Flowers

Robert F Freund

Bruce H DeWoolfson

Apparatus for the collection and storage of empty glass bottles, and for dispensing refund payments therefor, including a laser scanner and microprocessor preselection mechanism for determining whether a bottle offered by a customer in the bottle access area of the apparatus is an acceptable refundable bottle; two panels together forming a V-shaped base portion of the bottle access area for accepting the accepted refundable bottle; a solenoid and latch mechanism for tilting one of the two panels inwardly toward a crushing area in response to a determination by the preselection mechanism of the color of the accepted refundable bottle to sort the bottles by color; one or more crushing wheels positioned beneath each panel for receiving the acceptable refundable bottles deposited by gravity from the inwardly tilted panel, the crushing wheels having a plurality of extending bars capable of smashing the accepted refundable bottle into glass cullet; a collection hopper positioned beneath the crushing wheels located under each panel for storing the glass cullet; and a coin dispensing means for dispensing payment for the bottles accepted.

Glass bottle collection and crushing apparatus

Apparatus for collection of aluminum containers and for dispensing payment therefor, including an exterior housing having an access port therein; a container access area sized to accommodate both crushed and non-crushed containers; an aluminum detector for determining whether a container offered by a customer is substantially aluminum, independent of the configuration of the container; a movable shelf responsive to the aluminum detector for accepting a container identified by the aluminum detector as being substantially aluminum; coin-dispensing structure for dispensing payment for containers accepted; a piston-actuated crusher for crushing the containers, the shelf being horizontally mounted on the piston; and a bag for storing the crushed containers.

Growing community of inventors

W. Milton, OH, United States of America

Stanley Flowers