PURPOSE: To enable bottle sorting in a small space and smooth running bottle transport by checking, removing bottles stored in crates separating according to bottle types and inserting the bottles into the different crates again by the bottle type without intermediate storage.

CONSTITUTION: Three types of bottles 1 (a bottle with circle-mark means for collection, with point-mark or cross-mark mean not for collection) inserted into crates 4 by the first conveyor 3 are transported and the bottle 1 type is identified by a bottle sorting device 11. A computer 14 moves the crates 4 to respective bottle exit positions according to the checking result. Depending on the share of the bottle 1 type checked out in the crates 4, the bottles are moved to the exit corresponding to the 2nd conveyor 7 to the 4th conveyor 9. A robot 10 brings out point-marked bottles to the 3rd conveyor 8, cross- marked bottles to the 4th conveyor 9 to be housed into respective crates 4. The circle-marked bottles 1 are housed into the crates 4 on the 2nd conveyor 7, sent to a bottle washer 2 and placed on a collecting system.