Recycling bins turn your plastic bottles into cash

Anyone popping plastic bottles into the Réco-France containers sited near some supermarkets will receive a voucher to spend in the shop. Small bottles are worth one centime and large ones two centimes and people can recycle several bottles at a time and save their vouchers for later.

Users take the cap off the bottle, drop it in the slot and slide the plastic bottle into the machine where it is checked – some opaque bottles cannot be recycled but are still collected – and, when finished, press the button to get their voucher.

Réco-France has 100 sites across the country and has recycled nearly 90million bottles since 2015, turning transparent PET bottles into pellets to make new bottles or even textile fibres for clothing, while granules from opaque PEHD bottles can be made into tubes, garden products or containers for washing powder.

Bottle tops are collected by the Bouchons d’Amour association to help the handicapped and are made into plastic pallets and containers.

Until now Réco-France has used full-size containers but these are harder to site in crowded supermarket car parks and it is looking at mini versions that will allow more recycling points, especially in public car parks.