Tesco in Slovakia chooses Tomra’s reverse vending machines ahead of new beverage recycling rules

01 Sep 2021 --- Tesco has chosen global reverse vending specialist Tomra as its beverage container collection infrastructure supplier in Slovakia. Some 140 reverse vending machines will roll out across the supermarket chain to enable beverage container recycling in 2022. 

Tesco customers across the country can start returning their empty containers to Tomra reverse vending machines when Slovakia’s new deposit return system launches on January 1, 2022.

Under Slovakia’s new deposit system, return points for metal cans and PET bottles will be required in grocery retailers with an area of more than 300 m2.

User-friendly recycling
Reverse vending machines enable the return of beverage containers in a deposit return system in a recycling system that is convenient for both consumers and stores.

“The key to the success of Slovakia’s new deposit return system is for consumers to value it and adopt it as their own, which can be achieved by making the system practical and convenient for them to participate in,” says Roman Postl, managing director at Tomra Collection Slovakia.

“It is also important to make sure the collection infrastructure in place is also retailer friendly.”Tesco in Slovakia has selected Tomra as its beverage container collection infrastructure supplier.

Martin Kuruc, CEO of Tesco in Slovakia, adds: “Tesco has been contributing to building sustainability in Slovakia for 25 years and we are committed to creating a system where packaging is treated as a valuable resource that can be used, reused, collected and recycled in a closed-loop.”

“By 2025, all our own brand products will be 100 percent recyclable or reusable. We have already been preparing for the launch of the deposit return system in January 2022 with a pilot project of reverse vending machines in the cities of Senec and Nitra.”

“Here, customers can already try out the new container deposit return system and, in addition, Tesco financially contributes for each returned PET bottle or can to make their city greener.”

Through the deposit return system, a small deposit is added to the beverage price, which is repaid to consumers when they return the empty containers for recycling.

Tesco and Tomra rev up recycling
Tomra has almost 50 years experience in deposit return systems. The company has approximately 80,000 reverse vending machines in over 60 markets worldwide, collecting over 40 billion containers for recycling each year.

In August, Gualapack and Tomra demonstrated the recyclability of Gualapack’s monomaterial polypropylene spouted pouch through all treatment stages of a DKR rigid PP waste stream.

Combining monomaterial laminates and semi-rigid multi-layer components, Gualapack’s pouches showed they could be automatically managed for recycling in a rigid PP stream.

In the UK, Tesco is rolling out soft plastic collection points at every large UK store after a successful 171-store trial earlier this year in Wales and the South West, in which close to a metric ton of soft plastic was collected every day.

Edited by Joshua Poole