Tomra establishes official presence in Portugal

With the opening of a new office in Ericeira, Portugal, reverse vending technology company Tomra Collection is laying the ground for its role in the upcoming implementation of a new deposit return system (DRS) in that country.

The Portuguese government has agreed on the introduction of DRS for the recycling of beverage containers, and the DRS ordinance will be published soon. The vending machines produced by Tomra automate the return of bottles and cans, to help make deposit return systems more efficient and convenient.

The new office, equipped with the various reverse vending machine models available, will serve as a base for Tomra’s staff and a showroom for visitors. It is located in one of Europe’s most popular surfing spots and situated on top of a hill, overlooking the ocean, underlining, said Tomra, the company’s ambition to ‘keep used beverage containers out of our oceans, streets and landfills’.

"With the opening of TOMRA’s new office, we look forward to helping Portugal transform into being greener, more circular and more sustainable,” said Tove Andersen, president and CEO.

Tomra was founded in Norway on April 1, 1972 by the brothers Petter and Tore Planke. After seeing a local grocer struggle with the manual collection of empty bottles in their store – which consumers returned for reuse – the brothers developed the first fully-automated reverse vending machine in their family’s garage.

Fifty years later, Tomra has more than 80,000 installations in over 60 markets, with over 4600 employees across the company worldwide. Tomra Collection captures over 40 billion drink containers each year. Its reverse vending machines enable 4.5 million tons in avoided carbon emissions each year.

Beverage containers recycled through reverse vending machines are collected and sorted without contamination from other types of waste. This ensures that they can be recycled into new bottles and cans again and again. Tomra believes that this process, called Clean Loop Recycling is the solution for keeping beverage containers out of the waste stream, moving valuable materials from single use to multiple use. In Norway – where TOMRA pioneered the first fully-automated reverse vending machines – collection rates for plastic bottles are 98%.