Zero to Hero: Romania's Astonishing Recycling Success
- Editor OGN Daily
- 38 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Romania now operates "the largest fully integrated deposit return system globally.”
Romania’s recycling rates were among the worst in the European Union, but in the two years since their recycling scheme launched, beverage-packaging collection and recycling has skyrocketed to an impressive 94 percent.
The country has adopted a simple scheme: when buying soft drinks or alcoholic beverages, the customer pays an extra 0.50 Romanian leu (£0.09 / 11 cents) per item and gets the money back when returning the packaging, cleaned and in its original shape, to a collection point (usually the same shops where the goods were bought).
Romania is home to around 19 million people and they returned a whopping 7.5bn beverage containers between the system’s launch in November 2023 and the end of September 2025, according to RetuRO, the company running the system in a public-private partnership with beverage packaging manufacturers and the state. The returns included 4bn PET bottles, 2bn metal cans, and 1.5bn glass containers. More than 500,000 tonnes of high-quality recyclable materials have been collected. “We are the largest fully integrated deposit return system globally,” says Gemma Webb, CEO of RetuRO. “It is a zero to hero story.”
How did the country achieve such a success? Raul Pop, the secretary of state in the environment ministry and a waste policy expert, believes that starting later than other countries may have been an advantage because Romania could use the latest software and traceability tools. Other countries, Pop suggests, are suffering from "inertia" as their systems are outdated.
Romania's return-to-retail model requires that shops that sell the containers must either install reverse vending machines or process the packaging manually. On top of that, shops also receive a financial incentive which helps them cover processing costs; RetuRO then ploughs all profits back into operations.
After the success with beverage containers, there are plans to expand the system to cover other types of packaging. “If you can put a bottle of water, you can also put a bottle of vinegar, a jar or a milk carton,” said Alexandra Țuțuianu of Ecoteca, Romania’s first waste management NGO.
