Glass bottle collection and crushing apparatus

Claim 1

Apparatus for collecting and storing refundable empty glass bottles of two or more individual colors and for issuing predetermined return deposits for the bottles collected, each refundable bottle having a code imprinted thereon to identify the brand and color of the bottle, comprising: (a) preselection means for determining the brand, color and refundability of a preferred empty glass bottle, the preselection means including a laser scanner for reading the imprinted code on each bottle, a bottle access area configured to accommodate the bottles for exposure to the laser scanner, and a microprocessor capable of receiving and interpreting the read code from the laser scanner; (b) means for accepting only a bottle identified by the preselection means as being refundable, the accepting means sorting the refundable bottles into two colors, the accepting means including two panels together forming a V-shaped base portion of the bottle access area, each panel being independently tiltable inwardly toward the crushing means, and an opening means attached to each panel responsive to the preselection means to sort refundable bottles into colors by selectively tilting one of the two panels of the V-shaped base portion depending upon the color of the refundable bottle to deposit the bottle by gravity into the crushing means; (c) means responsive to the accepting means for crushing the refundable bottles into glass cullet, the crushing means including at least one rotating crushing wheel; (d) dispensing means responsive to the preselection means for dispensing at least one of a coin and a token in return for the refundable bottles; and (e) means for storing the glass cullet received from the crushing means.