Building a Bottle Sorting System

Raise More Money for Your Cause with Sorting Trays

Mar 11, 2009 Sharon Russell

Building sorting trays for your bottle drives can reduce the strain on volunteers, reduce the number of volunteers needed to sort, and increase the amount of money raised

Bottle drives can be a quick and efficient way to raise money for your non-profit organization, school, or team. If you are planning to run bottle drives on an ongoing basis, it is worthwhile to create a sorting system.

The system can be as simple as building a sided tray that fits on top of a 6-foot folding table. Unsorted bottled can be dumped in the sorting tray and volunteers can separate the items into piles on the ground. When a pile has enough items to fill a bag, volunteers can count the items into a bag. Although, it is easier to count the items if you don't have to sort at the same time, managing piles of items on the ground can be back-breaking work. A more sophisticated sorting system can be more efficient and less stressful for volunteers.

A Sample Bottle Sorting System

The following system, created by the First Glenayre Scouts in Port Moody, BC, Canada, is based on a pre-sort model and allows volunteers to work entirely on tables -- no bending required. The basic design is for five sorting trays that fit on five 6-foot folding tables. Although this system is based on the sorting requirements in Port Moody, BC, the design can be easily modified to accommodate different requirements.

How the System Works

The five folding tables are arranged into the shape of a letter H and the trays are placed on top of the tables. Sorting and counting are completed in a series of phases:

Unsorted items are dumped onto the center tray (the bar across the H). Two volunteers stand on opposite sides of the center tray between the arms and pre-sort the items into four categories by sliding the items down the appropriate arm: Metal cans (alcoholic and non-alcoholic); Glass alcohol bottles (beer, wine, liquor); Plastic non-alcoholic bottles (soda pop, juice, water); and Misc (drink boxes, gable top, bimetallic tins, drink pouches, alcoholic plastic bottles, non-alcoholic glass bottles).
As items are presorted into each of the arms, volunteers standing at the end of each arm do a secondary sort into specific categories. For example, on the Metal Cans arm, non-alcoholic cans are separated from alcoholic cans. On the Glass Bottle arm, beer bottles are separated from wine and liquor bottles, and then the wine and liquor bottles are separated by size.
When enough items are sorted, the volunteers count the number required directly into bags that are held in wire bag holders at the ends of the arms. Then, they tie off the bags and move them to their assigned area for pick up.

Building the Sorting Trays

These plans are intended to give you the general idea of a design that can be fit together into a compact form for easy transportation and storage. You can modify these plans as required to suit your bottle sorting needs.

Note that old hollow doors work well for the bases because they are light and sturdy, as well as being thick enough to attach the sides. Folding doors work well for the trays that have dividers because they can be separated at the center to attach the divider. Half inch plywood is ideal for the sides, ends, and dividers.

Center tray:

Base: 80"x36"
Sides: 12"x 9" and 16" x 9" (Each piece centered on one of the long sides of the base to keep bottles from falling off the center tray)
Ends: 36"x9" (2 pieces attached to the ends of the tray to keep bottles from falling off the ends)

Metal Can arm:

For sorting alcoholic and non-alcoholic metal cans.

Base: 80"x36"
Sides: 80"x 9" (2 pieces attached to the sides to keep cans from falling off the sides)
(optional) Divider: 80"x 9" (attached along center of the base to separate alcoholic and non-alcoholic cans)
End: 36"x 9" (attached to end with hinges so the cans don't fall off the end during sorting, but can be lowered for counting cans into bags)

Glass Bottle arm:

For sorting alcoholic bottles (beer, wine, liquor)

Base: 80"x34"
Sides: 80"x 9" (2 pieces)
(optional) Divider: 80"x 9" (attached along center of the base to separate beer and wine/liquor bottles)
(End piece is not required as these bottles don't tend to fall off the end like the cans do)

Plastic Bottle arm:

For sorting non-alcoholic plastic bottles

Base: 80" x 30"
Sides: 80" x 9" (2 pieces)
(Divider and end piece not required for this arm)

Misc arm:

For sorting gable top, drink boxes, bimetallic tins, drink pouches, alcoholic plastic bottles, and non-alcoholic glass bottles)

Base: 80" x 32"
Sides: 80" x 9" (2 pieces)
(Divider and end piece are not required for this arm -- boxes for rarely received items can be placed under this tray, e.g., for plastic alcohol bottles, non-alcoholic glass bottles, drink pouches, bimetallic tins, and so on)

Other Supplies Required/Suggested:

4-6 wire bag holders (available at gardening stores)
100-200 Clear Plastic bags (depending on the number of items you expect to get)
Signs or brochures indicating the categories items need to be sorted into and the numbers of each item that needs to go in a bag. These can be attached to the ends of each arm where volunteers are counting items.
Felt markers for writing the count on incomplete bags
5 6-foot folding tables

If you run several bottle drives a year, having a sorting system is well worth the effort. It reduces the strain on volunteers by allowing them to sort while standing or sitting, as well as reducing the number of volunteers required to sort the refundable items and the speed at which they can work. This means that more volunteers are available to collect refundable containers and more containers mean more money for your cause.

The copyright of the article Building a Bottle Sorting System in Non-Profit Management is owned by Sharon Russell. Permission to republish Building a Bottle Sorting System in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Diagram of Sorting Tray Setup	Dumping Items into Center Tray for Sorting	Sorting Metal Cans
Sorting Glass Bottles	Sorting Tables Packed For Transportation