Green Forum • 2 April, 2024 at 7:00 AM
RetuRO, the administrator of the Deposit-Return System, opened the third regional packaging collection center in Brasov County, located within the VGP logistics park. The annual processing capacity of the center in Brasov exceeds 240 million packages.
With an area of 3,300 square meters, the center has advanced packaging processing equipment, including PET and aluminum can counting machines, glass packaging counting machines, glass storage bunkers, and baling presses.
"As we anticipated from the beginning of the system launch, the gradual opening of regional centers will be coordinated with the increase in the number of SGR packages on the market. Currently, we have three operational RetuRO centers, which can collectively process over 1.7 billion packages annually, more than three times the total number of SGR packages introduced on the market so far. We will continue to focus on expanding the infrastructure, and in the next 3 months, we plan to open centers in Ilfov, Dolj, Bacau, and Prahova counties. SGR is a premiere, but also a huge opportunity to improve Romania, with a cleaner environment and encouraging responsible behavior at the individual level," said Gemma Webb, CEO and President of the RetuRO Directorate.
Gemma Webb specified that the regional center will serve Brasov, Harghita, Covasna, and Sibiu counties and the surrounding areas. Here, both manually collected SGR beverage packaging and automatically collected ones through RVM-type equipment will be transported. The operationalization of this SGR packaging processing unit creates new ecological jobs, with the new center having approximately 40 employees.
According to her, the Deposit-Return System has evolved steadily in the first months since its launch, with an increasing number of SGR packages being put on the market by manufacturers during this period and returned by consumers to specially designated centers. Thus, in the first 3 months of system operation, consumers returned over 23 million SGR packages, their number increasing exponentially from 31,000 units in December 2023 to 21 million in February, with an estimated over 60 million units returned in March.