TOMRA R1: New way to return containers set to change consumer recycling behavior in Germany, Denmark and Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the first publicly-available TOMRA R1 will go live on Monday at TOMRA’s office in Apeldoorn for a special charity initiative. For every drink can returned for recycling, TOMRA will donate five Euro cents to raise money for vital medical equipment for the local community. In addition to a good cause, it also prepares for the introduction of cans to the Netherlands’ deposit return system at the end of 2022.

TOMRA’s roll-out of the R1 has so far included Norway, Sweden, Estonia and Finland, as well as redemption centers in the United States.

How multi-feed returns are changing the face of container recycling

As TOMRA R1 approaches two years since its debut, TOMRA wanted to understand the impact that multi-feed reverse vending (that is, pouring all of your containers into the machine in one go) has on consumer recycling attitudes and shopping behavior. An independent research agency conducted in-store interviews with consumers, store owners/managers, and staff responsible for recycling stations in nine stores across three markets: Norway, Sweden and Finland. In all three regions, automated return points for drink containers are often located in supermarkets, where deposit refunds can be used as in-store credit. 119 consumers were interviewed while using TOMRA’s multi-feed reverse vending machine.

A clear 100% of respondents stated that they preferred multi-feed return of containers over single-feed returns (that is, inserting containers one by one). Consumer reasoning for this preference included time savings, ease of use, less physical effort, higher capacity, better hygiene and a cleaner in-store recycling area due to fewer spills. Respondents also had high trust that their refund is correctly calculated, rating this 4.5 out of 5 on average. Because of the large container volumes they returned and higher deposit refund, almost all respondents said they would spend their refund in store.

How recycling impacts shopping

As well as impacting recycling habits, multi-feed returns of beverage containers is also impacting how and where recyclers shop. More than 70% of respondents said they had chosen to shop at that specific store that day because they would also be recycling there. Around 45% of multi-feed users in Norway said that they spend more money in store than planned when they also have in-store credit from recycling to use. Up to 60% of participants said they shop more often at that particular store, because of being able to use the multi-feed reverse vending machine while there.