Automated Deposit Kiosk For Post-Consumer Waste Batteries

My Idea serial ID: 00498

Keep harmful battery compounds out of landfills. Saving the environment through practical solutions. A corrolary to the general idea for deposits on batteries is a means to effect their return efficiently. A stand alone machine, similar in nature to the automated deposit return machines in use in Europe for beverage containers, to be stationed near point of sale outlets such as supermarkets and other retailers that would function as follows. . . A rotating magazine that accepts various sized batteries as they are inserted, and as the magazine rotates into the machine for recognition, they are deposited into a holding bin that could sort them accordingly. A number of different slots could also be sized and shaped to accept the more commonly used sizes wherein they could be weighed, or otherwise be recognized through optical means, as technology dictates. As the practice becomes widespread, a magnetically encoded tag might also be added to batteries as they are manufactured. In any case, the user would bring their spent batteries to the machine, deposit them accordingly, and recieve a cash equivalent credit slip or voucher for verification and redemption at participating retailers. For the retailer willing to devote a bit of space to such a device, there would be the incentive of having persons who very likely need new batteries arrive at their location with an extra bit of cash to assist in the purchase of new batteries at that location. A "win-win-win" as I reckon it.
The machine and the overall concept need not wait for the implementation of a deposit system. There may be a residual value to the raw materials inherent in old batteries to justify a credit (albeit much lesser) even if the batteries are not part of any deposit scheme. The benefits to the forward thinking retailer would still obtain insofar as attracting battery hungry consumers to their store.