RetuRO, the administrator of the Deposit Return System, the largest circular economy project in Romania, has opened its fifth counting and sorting center for plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and glass in Nicolae Balcescu, Bacau county. 

Located within the ELI Park Bacau industrial park, the center will manage and process beverage packaging collected both manually by retailers and through Return Vending Machines (RVMs). 

The new 8,000 sqm center has 150 employees working in three shifts and integrates state-of-the-art equipment to ensure an efficient sorting and counting process for all types of packaging enrolled in the Deposit Return System. It has an annual counting capacity of about 650 million DRS packaging and a sorting and processing capacity by material type (PET, metal, glass) of over 1.2 billion DRS packaging. 

It will mainly serve the northeastern part of the country and the nearby counties. 

"Expanding the infrastructure of sorting and counting centers remains one of our priorities in the coming period to ensure the optimal functioning of the Deposit Return System. Currently, the five operational RetuRO centers and the counting and sorting centers we operate with partners in several areas of the country can process around 6 billion packages annually. With the opening of the new RetuRO center, we mark another important step in the development of the infrastructure of the largest circular economy project in Romania," said Gemma Webb, CEO and Chairman of the RetuRO Board of Directors. 

RetuRO also plans to open new centers in Prahova and Dolj in the near future. 

Since its implementation seven months ago, the Deposit Return System has evolved steadily. By the end of June, producers had put 2.7 billion DRS packs on the market, of which consumers had returned more than 850 million. 

Currently, more than 1,000 trucks are operating for the daily collection of DRS packaging. 

Approximately 85% of the collected packaging has been sent to recycling facilities in the first six months.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Ovidiu Micsik)