Tomra reports sales progress for R1 reverse vending machine

The Tomra Collection Solutions division of Norway-based Tomra System A/S says one year after its product launch, more than 50 Tomra R1 reverse vending machines (RVMs) are at work in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the United States.

The R1 will be “rolling out to more markets in the future,” as the model distinguishes itself for its ability to allow users to feed it bags full of mixed metal and plastic beverage containers at a rate of speed not possible before, according to Tomra.

“The machine is totally fantastic—customers love it, and we definitely have customers coming to the store because of it,” says Fredrik Hallenstvedt, a store manager at Meny Borreveien in Norway, one of the testing locations for the R1. “Since installing the machine we have experienced over 200 percent growth in the volume of containers compared to the year before.”

In August of this year, Finland became the first new market to welcome the R1 since the original launch of the product in Norway, Sweden and the United States. The R1 made its Finnish debut at the supermarket K-Citymarket Tammisto in the city of Vantaa.

Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that installation became the first R1 to operate 24/7, and it collected 28,000 drink containers in a single day during the first week of launch, says Tomra, “setting a new record for containers collected at a Tomra RVM.”

More information about the R1 and the impact it has made in its first year can be found on this web page.