Pepsico, Waste Management Tackle the Reverse Supply Chain for Disposable Bottles with the Dream Machine

A new initiative by Pepisco and Waste Management offers an interesting example of how going Green can nicely intersect with consumer perception and market development.

Earlier this year, the two companies announced an ambitious plan to improve the reverse supply chain for individual beverage bottles not most commonly thrown in trash cans and not recycled.

Together Pepsico and Waste Management have plans to deploy thousands of "Dream Machines" in both permanent and temporary locations that will take in recycled bottles and provide both monetary and psychic rewards to consumers who participate.

Plastics, glass and aluminum bottles and cans in individual serving sizes (e.g., the 20 ounce plastic bottle or 12 ounce can of soda, not to mention bottled water, teas, etc.) are famously hard to get into the recycle supply chain.  Why? Because in many cases it is simply not convenient to hold on to a container until a recycling option is available. Few convenience stores, recreation facilities or other venues have recycling receptacles.

Industry statistics say that just 34% of non-alcoholic US beverage containers are currently recycled and just 25% of the most common plastic beverage containers.

Enter the Dream Machine, which is sort of like a reverse vending machine and kiosk. The machine will accept plastic and aluminum containers from anyone (no glass yet), but those who sign up for the program they can earn points for themselves of others for every container they recycle. (See Pepsi Dream Machine web site here.)

PepisCo say they have plans to deploy as many as 3000 Dream Machines this year, some in permanent locations such as convenience stores and city sidewalks, others more temporary such as large concerts or other events.

How It Works

The machines have an electronic display that offers instructions and also the ability to scan a key fob ID to link the person to the containers that will be deposited. Consumers can sign up on a web site or the Dream Machine itself, which will trigger a key fob to be sent. Consumers are asked to scan the UPC  bar code on the container itself, helping the companies better understand what products and container types are being deposited. This would also enable PepsiCo, if it so chose, to offer higher reward points for recycling Pepsi products.

For each container deposited, points are earned that eventually can be redeemed for a consumer's own benefit (Pepsi products, movie theater tickets) or two trigger points that will lead to rewards for certain organizations, such as "Entrepreneur Bootcamp for Veterans." A receipt is printed after the deposits indicating point totals and other information.

For seriously Green consumers, signing up will also trigger various connections and feeds to environmentally related social networks.

"There's got to be something in it for people, both through material rewards and emotional rewards," Jeremy Cage, Pepsico's Dream Machine project manager, was quoted as saying a couple of months ago.

Interestingly, the Dream Machine does not crush the containers, as the companies believe that some consumers will avoid the effort because they do not like that sound. That decision means that each bin can hold fewer containers than if they were crushed, requiring more frequent emptying. Each Dream Machine should be able to hold about 300 empty containers, the companies say.

The machines are wirelessly connected to the program's computers. This allows not only the point totals and other information to be easily collected, but for the Dream Machines to play updated commercials and offer other services. When a container is near full, it will trigger an email to whomever is responsible for emptying the machine that it is time to remove the recycled bottles.

Often that will be a store manager, when a Dream Machine is set up at say a convenience store. Local event workers will probably do the work at concerts and similar venues. Who that will be on city sidewalks or other more challenging locations is not immediately clear.

Waste Management will pick up the consumer recycled containers and take them to a downstream recycling center. The machine themselves were developed by GreenOps, LLC, a subsidiary of Waste Management, which claims to be the first provider of interactive recycling technology.

In addition to the potential marketing benefits (each registrant gives PepsiCo another social media "touch point," there is of course a Dream Machine Facebook page, Twitter, etc.) the company may have other motives. The beverage industry has long been under assault by environmental groups over its bottles and cans, especially those related to bottled water 

Many environmentalists are pushing legislation that would require deposits on plastic, aluminum and glass containers, now found in a relatively few locations. The beverage industry has generally opposed such legislation, in the end worried it will lead to lower sales of its products.

Will the Dream Machine effort produce enough results that it will at least temporarily quiet critics calling for deposit legislation? That certainly remains to be seen. Pepsico says its goal is to increase the number of beverage containers recycled in the US from the current 34% to 50% by 2018.

Source: http://www.thegreensupplychain.com/