Reverse vending machine cost

Cost in the UK

Reverse vending machine cost in the UK, and the £6,000 grant

Updated

One UK seller publishes a price for a compact machine: £4,999.99 ex VAT. Small independent shops can get a £6,000 grant, paid as £2,000 a year for three years.

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The published UK price

Store Fittings Direct lists a compact QUBE deposit return machine for cans and bottles at £4,999.99 ex VAT, or £5,999.99 with VAT. It is the only UK seller of the 24 suppliers we read that puts a price on its own page.

Source: Store Fittings Direct: compact deposit return machine (QUBE)

Every other supplier we read quotes per site. The full list, with the date each page was read, is in the price index.

Source: UK Reverse Vending Machine Price Index: every row, with its source

The grant for small shops

Exchange for Change, the scheme administrator, says grants of £6,000 will be made available per site to qualifying small, independent retailers, paid in three annual payments of £2,000, funded three months after an RVM is installed.

Source: Exchange for Change: DRS support for retailers

It is making £60m in grant funding available to help up to 10,000 small, independent retailers meet the cost of installing reverse vending machines across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Source: Exchange for Change: DRS support for retailers

The scheme goes live in October 2027, so the first grant payment lands around three months after that, not before you buy.

Source: Circular: Exchange for Change expands exemptions

What this means for your budget

The grant is paid over three years, so you carry the cost of the machine first. On the one published UK price, £4,999.99 ex VAT, the £6,000 grant covers the machine over its three payments, before installation, servicing or a lease is counted. Ask your supplier what is included, and check you qualify before you count on the grant.

Source: Store Fittings Direct: compact deposit return machine (QUBE)

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What is it about?

Your store's size, roughly how many drinks containers you sell a week, and whether you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

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Sources

This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:

  • The UK DRS Return Point Rules carries 2 published figures read from 1 source's own page, from 3 to 7 year, read 28 October 2026.
  • The median published figure in the UK Reverse Vending Machine Price Index is 3,138.88 EUR across 1 source's own page in EUR (range 3,138.88 to 3,138.88 EUR; 2 sources publish a figure), read 29 October 2026.
  1. TOMRA: reverse vending machine price
  2. TOMRA reverse vending
  3. RVM Systems UK (its own page, listed on this site's dataset page)
  4. RVM Systems all products
  5. RVM Systems: can a small store use an RVM?
  6. First Mile RVMs for retailers
  7. Store Fittings Direct: compact deposit return machine (QUBE)
  8. Envipco: UK DRS exemption criteria

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