Rewarding recycling: Learning from the world highest-performing deposit return system
As policymakers and brand owners alike consider how to reduce plastic pollution, recover and reuse more containers, and generally move towards a “circular economy”, deposit return systems are being evaluated as a policy tool for their ability to significantly raise beverage container recycling rates.
TOMRA has over 45 years’ experience innovating and managing deposit return systems in 40 markets. Among the variety of deposit systems are success stories where the objectives and needs of multiple stakeholders are met. By identifying and sharing the framework commonly used to design deposit return policy and systems, this white paper seeks to contribute to an educated discussion on recycling best practice – including what can be learned from the past, and what the future may look like.
