Collection and recycling unit for used containers

A system for collecting and recycling used bottles, cans and similar items made from metal and plastic materials, having two different operative cycles, comprising:

• a closed cubicle compartment provided with two openings, one of said openings being for introducing containers formed of plastic material and the other of said openings being for introducing metal material containers;
• lower doors providing access to said cubicle, one for the plastic containers and the other for the metal containers, through which said containers of metal and plastic material can be separately removed;
• one of said operative cycles for recycling of plastic containers being coupled with a separate one of said openings and being activated when a plastic container is introduced into said one opening;
• gate means, and conveyor means for conveying the plastic container to said gate means, said gate means including a central opening for receiving the neck of the plastic container and allowing passage of the neck only;
• sensor means associated with said gate means for sensing the neck of the container and the material thereof, said sensor means including a photocell and a reflector for operating an electrically operated piston-cylinder assembly coupled with said gate means for operation thereof, said piston-cylinder assembly being coupled by means of a lever to said gate means which turns on a fulcrum and opens said gate means, thus permitting the passage of the plastic container;
• a pressure conveyor, the container falling into said pressure conveyor and being introduced by the neck to first roller means including intermediate couple of rollers positioned between two first squeezing roller;
• said roller means including said squeezing roller couples and said intermediate rollers with differentiated diameters for reducing the size of the container to form a squeezing assembly in the form of a recovered body;
• an outside collector, the recovered body then falls by gravity into said outside collector, said outside collector having a door and the body can be removed by opening said door;
• the other of said operative cycles being activated by a metal container for recycling metal containers after having the metal container introduced through said second opening, said second opening including means for causing the metal container to pass through a conduit at which position it is sensed by a sensor means capable of recognizing the material type for authorizing payment;
• means permitting the metal container to sink into a conveyor and pass before a photocell for counting the number, and second roller means for squeezing the metal containers after being counted, said second roller means including second squeezing rollers coaxial with said first squeezing rollers which turn simultaneously with said first squeezing rollers;
• and
• a channel and a door coupled therewith, through which said door a recovered body thus obtained is removed from said channel.

A collection and recycling unit for used containers having two operating cycles formed from different materials, and comprising:

• cubicle compartment means including individual means for carrying out two operating cycles and having first and second inlets, one for each said operating cycle, for receiving plastic and metal containers, respectively, said cubicle compartment means including means for withdrawal of processed plastic and metal containers;
• first and second path means, one of said path means for each of said operating cycles, coupled with said first and second inlets, respectively, and with said withdrawal means for individually processing the plastic containers in one of said operating cycles and the metal containers in the other of said operating cycles and conveying thereof to said withdrawal means;
• first and second container processing means each individually and separately responsive to the characteristics of the material of the container in said first and second path means, respectively, for processing the plastic containers in one of said processing means and the metal containers in the other of said processing means individually, said first and second container processing means including at least two pairs of counter-rotating rollers positioned on a pair of spaced axles for maintaining a portion of each pair of adjacent rollers in tangential contact as said rollers rotate, one of said pairs of adjacent rollers having a first outer configuration suitable for processing plastic containers, and another of said pairs of adjacent rollers having a second outer configuration suitable for processing metal containers, and
• totalizing means responsive to each of said first and second container processing means for supplying an indicia of value related directly to the type of containers processed in said first and said second processing means.