Residents of Taiwan’s capital Taipei are using newly installed machines called “iTrash booths” to recycle cans and bottles in exchange for credit on their transportation smart cards.
The initiative seeks to promote recycling while also giving residents more flexibility in how they dispose of their household garbage.
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The booths are about the size of vending machines and automatically compress the throwaways and contain odors while depositing payments onto the cards and issuing receipts. Each can collect around 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of cans and bottles, with plans to provide 10,000 units for the city of 2.67 million.
With little space for landfills and limited incineration options, crowded Taiwan has for decades required strict separation of paper, plastic, metal and kitchen scraps.
