In Michigan, we have a 10¢ deposit on cans and bottles. They’re refunded by feeding empties into a machine that counts them up. But there are never enough machines, so a line forms. And right now I’m watching 7 dopes inspect each container individually before feeding it into the machine.
My mom lives in a small town in Norrland that has a single grocery store with only one machine. The machine is almost always broken! I haven’t seen the new machines you’re describing, but I hope her town gets one soon.
I live in the US in a state without a deposit system, so I put all my recyclables into one bag and walk it down the hall to my building’s recycling chute. No need for sorting because it all gets sorted at the recycling facility.