How would you tag a reverse vending machine for returning to-go coffee cups (new trial deposit system in Denmark)? Adding recycling:coffee_cups=* ?
The machine does not accept anything other than coffee cups.
There was a similar topic recently for a “vending” machine accepting deposit bottle return here:
Reverse recycling aka bottle_return: Please merge with prior topic not found again
I am sure there will be more of these return machines in future so we should think about a reasonable tagging scheme for all kinds of those.
As the main purpose is not selling anything but returning different types of containers for recycling, I would favour a “recycling” key instead of “vending_machine”. Other opinions?
I would recommend that we stop using amenity=vending_machine for everything that is automatic and somehow has to do with stuff and money. The wiki page currently starts with the definition “A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items … after the customer inserts currency or credit”. I think we should stick to that. While vending=bottle_return is listed in the examples, I think it is time to lay that aberration to rest and find a more suitable tag for machines that give you money when you insert things.
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Why not use amenity=recycling?
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Yes, I think ‘amenity=recycling’ combined with ‘recycling_type=deposit_machine’ would make more sense. (And using ‘recycling:=’ to specify the material).
But this tagging is almost not in use so perhaps vending=bottle_return has some advantage I’m not aware of?
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Recently asked on wiki. As there are machines recycling different things seen here, it should be simplified to eg recycling_type= =machine , or =reverse_vending_machine as mentioned above. Talk:Tag:vending=bottle return - OpenStreetMap Wiki
The question is: Should “recycling” vs returning reusable containers be distinguished?
I would not make a difference in tagging “recycling” and “return of …”. If I drop my empty bottles, cans or other containers into a recycling container or a return machine does not make much of a difference. If part of the containers collected in these machines will be “reused” instead of “recycled” one has to consider that reusing is the best way of recycling.
I think a pragmatic and simple way to tag these machines could be:
amenity=recycling
recycling_type=machine
recycling=* (using the existing values)
deposit_containers=yes/no/only
deposit_refund=yes/no
If “deposit_containers” appears misunderstandable because of the term “container” another option would be “deposit_items” imo.
Trying to decide on an acceptable tagging solution taking this discussion into consideration:
Does this look ok?:
amenity=recycling
recycling_type=machine
recycling:cups=yes
deposit_refund=yes
Not sure on the meaning of “deposit_containers=yes/no/only” so left it out.
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Looks good to me.
deposit_containers=yes/no/only or
deposit_items=yes/no/only
was meant to indicate if a machine accepts only bottles/cups/containers which are subject to a deposit payment or if probably also bottles/cups/containes free of any depost will be accepted. I agree this tag is not very clear and not necessary in most cases as these machines are specially designed to return items where a deposit had been paid and refund the deposit amount.