System and method for recycling of articles
AssigneeEver Green Environmental Corporation
InventorsMICHAEL WADDEN, JONATHON DROVER, KURT W. WILLIAMS
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a system for receiving recyclable items having a deposit value from a customer, comprising a user station comprising means to generate tags bearing a unique tag identifier, an sorting station comprising an sorting interface for entering the tag identifier and the numbers and types of recyclable items, and a computer in communication with the customer and sorting interfaces, to calculate the total deposit value for recyclable items and ascribe a deposit value to said customer account, and to update the customer account with a monetary amount correlating to said deposit value.
Claims20
A system for processing recyclable articles having a deposit value, wherein said articles comprise a plurality of article types, said system comprising:
- a depot for depositing of recyclable articles, comprising a user interface for a computer, a reader to read a machine-readable information carrier associated with said customer and a label generator for generating and dispensing a machine-readable label bearing a unique identifier for attachment to said recyclable articles or a container thereof,
- at least one sorting station which optionally is remote from said depot comprising a computer interface for electronically reading said label, configured to sort the articles into a plurality of receptacles and a user interface for entering data into a computer relating to the numbers of said articles identified by article type sorted into said receptacles, and
- a computer system in operative communication with the user interfaces of said depot and sorting station, said computer having a memory, a processor and program instructions to:
- generate an individual customer account for said customer in response to a demand by said customer, maintain a record of said labels upon generation thereof, tabulate and update system-wide and sorting inventory levels said articles present within said system in response to article data entered at said sorting stations, determine a financial value for articles associated with each of said labels and update said customer account with said financial value.
A method for processing recyclable articles having a deposit value, within a recycling system, comprising the steps of
- establishing a customer account containing customer information
- providing a customer with an information carrier bearing a unique customer identifier which permits access to said customer account;
- at depot, reading said customer identifier with a reader to obtain customer identification information and communicating said information to processor computer;
- generating at least one label comprising a unique container identifier for attachment to said articles or a container thereof and communicating said identifier to said computer;
- at a sorting station, reading the label with a reader in communication with said computer;
- responsive to reading of said label, accessing and opening at least a portion of said customer account at said sorting station;
- sorting said articles into receptacles by article type and communicating the numbers of articles by article type to the computer;
- calculating a deposit value of said articles associated with each of said labels;
- updating said customer account to update the monetary value within said account responsive to said calculated deposit value;
- tabulating and updating inventory levels of said articles present within said system in response to article data entered at said sorting station;
- and
- providing a payment to said customer of all or part of the monetary value in said account.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.