“The deposit-return system was a very ambitious idea that’s been transformed into a nationwide operating system, which is fantastic and something Romania should be very, very proud of.

When you look at the deposit return system in Romania, there’s three pillars we should look at. The first pillar is in terms of scale. It is the largest fully integrated deposit return system in Europe.

So, this is something we should be very proud of and recognise. The other thing is in terms of scale; it brought thousands of jobs directly and indirectly in Romania and it stimulated many value chains all the way through the system,” said Gemma Webb, CEO and Chairman of the Board, RetuRO during the Sustainability in Business Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest and Sustainability Today.

Key statements:

• In addition to that, it has enabled Romania to import less of the secondary materials because now we have a complete supply of materials. The other pillar is around collaboration and this was one of the key things for success.

• Because it was a huge system and to bring it all together, you had to have producers nationwide, producers, retailers, authorities and millions of consumers all came together to bring this system alive. And this is one of the key elements of collaboration and this is one of the key elements of success.

• And I think today we can see the impact on the streets and in the countryside. And it’s no surprise because you can visibly see it that when we look, we’ve collected more than 7 billion containers across plastic and aluminium over the last 18 months and more than half a million tonnes of this material has been sold to recyclers. And that’s enabling the circular economy for beverage packaging.

• Over 80% of every single bottle and can that went on the market in Romania in the last 12 months has been collected, it’s been sorted and that material has been sold to recyclers for them to put back into the system. So, it’s a great example of how this system has enabled the circular economy.

• The plans now are focused on efficiency and effectiveness. Effectiveness is in terms of the reach because every single citizen in Romania deserves to have easy access to the system. So, what we’re focussing on now is communities, increasing the number of return points so that everybody has easy access. That’s one thing, and that’s about the effectiveness.

• And the second area then is about the efficiency because we’ve only been live really 18 months in reality. So here you have a lot of efficiencies that we need to bring into the system to ensure sustainability. And this is another area that we will drive on.

• What I would say is key to this success is first of all having a goal, a common goal. So, from the very start, that was there. Everybody had the one objective to bring the system to life.

• It created a movement. Everybody wanted it to work. And so, all of our partners really worked with us for this to be a success.

• All of the stakeholders working together created a real ambition and a movement. And that’s what carried it forward.