Tomra Collection opens office in Greece

The Tomra Collection business unit of the Norway-based Tomra Group has opened a new office in Athens.

The company says the move marks a "significant step forward" in its mission to support Greece in attaining circularity through an efficient deposit-return system (DRS) and solutions for collecting used beverage containers for recycling.

According to Tomra, Greece faces an urgent challenge in managing discarded plastic, with a significant portion still ending up in landfills.

Eyeing adherence to the European Union’s Single-Use Plastics Directive, the Greek government has committed to introduce a DRS for beverage containers.

“A DRS will represent an opportunity for Greece’s tourism-driven economy, by protecting its pristine environment and increasing its overall circularity performance,” Tomra says.

Tomra adds that DRS plans have demonstrated their effectiveness in increasing the collection and recycling rates of beverage containers wherever they have been implemented. 

In Norway, where Tomra pioneered the first fully-automated reverse vending machines (RVMs), the collection rate for plastic bottles now is as high as 98 percent, according to the firm.

Tomra has placed approximately 85,000 RVMs worldwide in more than 60 markets. The new office in Athens will serve as a hub for Tomra Collection’s operations and can display its latest models.

“Although Tomra’s reverse vending business has been active in Greece since the early 2000s, the entity Tomra Collection Greece was established in January 2023 and has been operational since January 2024, taking over the responsibilities from distributor Alpe-Tech,” Tomra President and CEO Tove Andersen says. “Now, Tomra Collection is ready to leverage its expertise and decades of experience to accelerate Greece’s journey towards circularity.”

The company says that for many years, its Recycling Sorting business unit, based in Germany, has successfully supported plant operators and contractors in achieving increased recycling rates, recovery, and diversion of valuable resources from landfills in Greece.

"With the addition of new collection activities, Tomra’s reverse vending and sorting technology now offers a powerful combination to further support Greece’s path toward greater material circularity," Tomra says.