Imagine our world without waste

Recycling is a part of the circular economy and an important solution that encourages a departure from the current “produce – buy – throw away” paradigm. It is the ability to close the loop and reprocess raw materials that will enable reducing the growing waste pollution and ensuring raw material security.

Imagine our world without waste

When products reach the end of their life cycle and are not recycled, their potentially valuable raw materials are permanently lost. Thus, the possibility of closing the loop and repeatedly processing raw materials constitutes the main point of discussions among experts and representatives of the international stakeholders – such a solution will enable reducing the growing waste pollution and ensuring raw material security.

Farsighted policy, free from local limitations, is necessary to responsibly manage the world’s natural resources. By increasing the scale of recycling and improving global resource management practices, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 2.76 billion tonnes of CO2 per year – the equivalent of removing over 600 million passenger vehicles from the roads each year – compared to currently employed methods of waste neutralisation.

Holistic resource management and its key elements

As a global leader in terms of taking action towards a circular economy, TOMRA is continuously analysing and optimising methods that enable achieving the highest possible recycling rates. One of the company’s solutions is the Holistic Resource Management System (“HRS”) – developed in cooperation with Eunomia. The solution was created based on considerable experience from global markets, by combining proven waste management techniques. The framework solutions, which should be further supported by effective Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) schemes, include:

• selective collection of bio-waste, glass, paper, textiles, as well as electrical and electronic equipment,
• implementation of a deposit-return system for beverage packaging,
• sorting of mixed residual waste.

Why do we need a deposit-return system in Poland?

More than 13 billion single-use beverage bottles or cans are placed on the Polish market every year. 5 billion of these containers are never recycled. What is more, many of them are not even thrown into a waste bin – polluting our streets, parks, forests, and lakes. Meanwhile, deposit-return systems currently employed across Europe allow to achieve the highest collection rates for beverage packaging waste, thus ensuring a high-quality recyclable raw material, which is essential in view of disrupted supply chains and new risks associated with the uncertainty of existing fossil fuel sources.

Based on data collected from global deposit-return markets, TOMRA produced a report entitled “Rewarding Recycling”, in which the company has reached key conclusions that, when applied with consideration of local circumstances, will enable establishing the most effective deposit-return system for single-use beverage packaging.

Above all, the system should be efficient and convenient. It should prevent littering, promote recycling and motivate consumers to treat packaging as a raw material rather than waste. It is therefore crucial to include a wide range of beverages and packaging in the system in order to encourage consumers to hand over the raw material for recycling. Omitting specific categories of beverages or packaging could result in thousands of tonnes of recyclable raw materials being wasted within the Polish economy.

The deposit-return system should also be easy, accessible and fair to all users. This could be achieved, for example, by a mandatory collection of waste by retail outlets and a uniform deposit amount, predetermined by the government. In Poland, the effective implementation of the system is facilitated by the extensive chains of stores, which is also of great importance to consumers, who highly value their proximity and accessibility.

While efficiency, convenience and producer responsibility are the foundations of an efficient deposit-return system, it will not be complete without appropriate control mechanisms. Enforcement procedures, including penalties and the authority empowered to enforce them, should be clearly defined by law and regulations.

Billions of beverage containers collected every year

TOMRA’s machines (also manufactured in Poland) collect more than 40 billion empty beverage containers every year: returning deposit amounts to consumers or donating such amounts to charity, securing a high quality of stream of waste for recycling and supporting the transition to a closed-loop economy.

TOMRA’s solutions provide reliable, effective support for Poland in achieving its goal of establishing a circular economy. Like other countries, Poland has an important task aimed at a cleaner environment and a secure future for its citizens. This is why it is so important to take the appropriate steps to remove litter from cities, forests or beaches and to support the development of local recycling companies.