TOMRA ramps up preparations for deposit return system

With only five months to go until the collection of used beverage containers mandated by the Deposit-Return System launches, TOMRA, the leading global provider of automated collection systems, has opened a new 4,000-square-meter logistics center near Bucharest.

The company’s first national logistics center will focus on maintenance and support for the equipment which automates the collection of empty beverage containers for recycling, serving the entire network of TOMRA Collection systems throughout Romania.

The 4,000-square-meter logistics center was built to the highest safety standards and includes a platform that can process the loading and unloading of up to 50 trucks per day. From here, both TOMRA collection systems and spare parts for their maintenance are delivered to collection points throughout the country, ensuring reduced costs and intervention times for merchants. 

TOMRA opened an office in Romania in 2021 and has rapidly developed a national service network, with technicians and fleets in each county, ready to support the merchants who will operate the return points. 

Preparations for Romania’s deposit return system are gathering pace across industry ahead of the November launch date. The scheme operator, ReturRO, announced in June that over 60,000 businesses have now registered on their online platform.

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RetuRO supports retailers for the quick and efficient management of the manual collection of DRS packaging

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“Romania’s comprehensive Deposit-Return System needs not only well-articulated legislation, but also the involvement and support of all institutions, the DRS administrator RetuRo, merchants, retailers and producers, as well as consumers. From TOMRA’s global experience, we know that a high-performing DRS also needs a strong logistics backbone, capable of ensuring uptime for the automatic collection systems. This is why TOMRA Collection Romania has already opened its first logistic support and maintenance center at national scale, which serves our entire network of machines, through an intervention team of highly qualified technicians, with more than 10 years’ experience in RVS maintenance and an intervention fleet ready at any time, with national cover”, says Dorin Mihai, Director of TOMRA Collection Romania. 

TOMRA is a  trusted partner for retailers worldwide, with approximately 82,000 reverse vending machines installed in 60 markets, capturing over 45 billion used beverage containers worldwide each year. 

New rules for recycling beverage containers in Romania: plastic, glass and metal

Romania’s Deposit-Return System covers single use primary beverage packaging: glass, plastic or metal, with volumes between 0.1L and 3L. Consumers will pay a 0.50 RON deposit for each such beverage purchased. Post-use, consumers will return the containers at the collection points organised by retailers, at which point their deposits will be instantly refunded. 

The upcoming legislation will require all retailers selling beverages in DRS packaging, regardless of the size of their sales area, to organize collection points, to ensure ease of access to the system for consumers, who must be able to easily return the packaging and get their deposits refunded.

TOMRA has developed beverage packaging collection solutions for all types of retailers, including those with very small sales areas of as little as 40sqm for which RVMs can have a footprint of only 0.6 m2, and up to large retail chains with sales areas of thousands of square metres, for which the TOMRA systems can handle up to 100 beverage package types simultaneously. 

“The TOMRA M1, with a footprint of only 0.6 square meters, can simultaneously pick up and store the three types of packaging, plastic, glass and metal. In addition to the reduced dimensions of the system, the ability to store both whole and broken glass packages after validation upon receipt makes TOMRA M1 the preferred solution for stores with very small areas or low volumes. Thus, regardless of the bottle management option established by the DRS administrator, retailers in Romania will have effective TOMRA solutions at their disposal. The benefits of automation are recognized even by very small stores because so far, in Romania, we have placed TOMRA M1 even in stores of only 40 square meters”, says Dorin Mihai.  

DRS programs have led to a significant increase in the collection rate of plastic packaging in Europe: countries that have implemented DRS programs achieve on average a 94% collection rate, compared to 47% in countries without DRS.

Romania’s DRS is one of the most comprehensive beverage packaging management programs in Europe, due to its wide scope, granularity and scale. Over 6 billion beverage containers will be collected and recycled annually through the Deposit Return System being diverted from landfill and reintroduced in the circular economy.