“We can all already see the impact of the deposit-return system, by reducing the number of packaging thrown in nature, on the streets, in parks, etc. This project, started 9 months ago, brought over 1.8 billion returned packages from those that were put on the market by producers in Romania. This means a collection rate of 45 percent in the 9 months, and August was a record month, with a 78 percent collection rate of the packaging placed on the market.

The impact can already be seen in society and we notice that Romanian citizens quickly joined this system because they discovered that it is easier for them to return the packaging, they understood the benefits and we thank all those who returned at least one packaging,” Radu Pascu, Commercial Manager, RetuRO SGR said during Sustainability in Business Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest and Sustainability Today.

“The phenomenon is known, the deposit-return system is known by the end consumers. 4 out of 5 consumers returned a package at least once. RetuRO has so far opened 7 collection and sorting centers, created 800 new jobs and made available to recyclers a good quality material that can be returned in bottle to bottle.

This system has many types of partners. Romania is a different market from other European markets because it has a lot of traders and points of sale compared to the number of citizens. We have over 80,000 merchants, which means over 120,000 collection points. So far, we have managed to introduce 75,000 merchants into the system, and more than half have signed contracts with RetuRO.

We are making efforts to encourage our partners to enter this system, to help them organize their collection points. It is not simple, there are many small traders, but they have started to see the benefits of the system and to understand how much it can help them to increase sales and customer loyalty.

Collective participation in this system is the key to success for a higher collection rate.

There are 40 countries worldwide that have a deposit-return system, 16 in Europe. The one in Romania is the second largest in Europe, after Germany. We consider it to be the most fully integrated system in the world at the moment, because it involves a number of players throughout the chain.

We were visited by colleagues from other countries and they were pleasantly impressed by the evolution of our DRS system in just 9 months and by the way Romanians behave and how they entered this system.

It is a system that will mature and next year we have a collection target of 80 percent. Such a system matures in 2-3 years, and some countries have reached a collection rate of over 90 percent.”