The Deposit Return System in Romania has developed steadily in the seven months since its implementation, with monthly figures rising. Consumers returned 350 million DRS packaging in June, 41% more than in May.
In total, 862 million DRS packs were returned by consumers between December 2023 and June 2024, and more than 2.7 billion DRS packs had been put on the market by the end of June.
Kantar’s most recent survey of a representative sample of consumers, conducted in June this year, shows a significant increase in the number of those who have already adopted the Deposit Return System.
4 out of 5 Romanians have returned DRS packaging at least once, a significant increase from March when half of the respondents said they had done so.
Currently, 4,000 RVMs (automated collection machines for DRS packaging) are available nationwide. This year, RetuRO has handed over 49,000 tons of DRS packaging to recyclers, representing about 85% of the amount of packaging returned and collected from consumers.
Today, more than 1,000 means of transport are involved in the daily collection of DRS packaging, making 2,000 trips. Currently, 75,000 economic operators are registered in the DRS.
RetuRO currently has five regional RetuRO counting and sorting centres operational in Romania: in the counties of Bacău (Nicolae Bălcescu), Brasov (Brasov), Cluj (Bonțida), Ilfov (Otopeni) and Timis (Giarmata).