Romania launches national deposit-return system

Slovakia-based waste and recycling sector technology provider Sensoneo is playing a role in the nationwide rollout of a beverage container deposit-return system (DRS) in Romania.

Late this year, Romania is launching what Sensoneo calls “the world’s largest centralized DRS, with almost 80,000 collection points.” Romania has become the 14^th European Union country to operate a DRS, designed to increase the collection and recycling rates of single-use beverage containers. 

The Romanian DRS will cover plastic, glass and metal beverage containers ranging from 0.1 to 3 liters, and the deposit per bottle will be 5 Romanian lei (approximately 11 cents). Companies that produce, import or sell beverages in single-use containers are required to take part in the system.

The system operator is RetuRO, a consortium uniquely consisting of beverage producers and retailers that also receives input from the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests.

RetuRO will manage around 7 billion beverage containers with the mission of boosting a recycling rate in Romania that is “struggling” compared with several other nations in Europe, according to Sensoneo.

“Despite many challenges, we managed to implement a very complex system in an unbelievably short time,” says Cristian Mihai, IT director of RetuRO. “We are talking about an extremely complex, modular system, which will have to not only support the information received from almost 80,000 [private sector] operators but also correlate identification, stock, return, collection, invoicing and reporting data for almost 7 billion packages. The novelty and the revolutionary nature of this system make it equally exciting and provocative.”

The Sensoneo technology and software “works as a backbone of the entire system as it integrates all stakeholders and gathers data from all sources within the process chain,” Sensoneo says.

The firm designed a "unique and ready-to-integrate IT system for DRS that can be adapted to any specific needs of different countries and is agnostic with any reverse vending machine (RVM).”

In an initial phase, Sensoneo provided RetuRO with a market-mapping tool that enabled efficient DRS implementation, including digital data collection and analysis from all entities, registration of entities and their beverages into the system, and automated digital contracting.

Sensoneo’s full DRS system includes a web portal for producers and retailers, a packaging register, a collection points register, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a reporting system, a document management system, interfaces with other systems (RVMs, counting and sorting centers) and mobile applications.

“We are very proud to take an important part in building the world’s largest integrated deposit return system,” says Martin Basila, CEO and co-founder of Sensoneo. “We are thrilled to contribute to this groundbreaking initiative with our cutting-edge software tailored to customer’s unique demands. Sensoneo is committed to providing innovative solutions that align seamlessly with the intricate requirements of this monumental project, and we look forward to playing a pivotal role in the success of the Romanian DRS.”

In addition to Romania, Sensoneo has DRS IT services deployed in Slovakia, Malta, Ireland and Hungary. Sensoneo says it has helped Slovakia reach a 93 percent beverage container recycling rate.

“We are happy another European country is on the path to implementing a DRS,” says Peter Knaz, the head of Sensoneo’s DRS and Take-Back division. “I believe it is the right step for Romania to increase the recollection of clean material streams and decrease pollution. Our DRS IT solution is a perfect fit for large-scale deployment as it provides one-stop shop platform for all stakeholders of the DRS system with a high level of waste management automation and financial streams.”