German start-up Reo has expanded its digital return platform – which integrates existing cosmetic and personal care packaging into circular systems via Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) – to include eight branches of the retailer Kaufland.
Kicked off at the ‘Innovation made in Heilbronn’ event involving representatives from business, politics, retail and the general public, the project’s expansion in the city follows a successful proof of concept in Munich involving 20 branches of retailers Kaufland and VollCorner.
Reo’s solution aims to allow brands to retain their individual packaging design (such as shapes, sizes and labels) instead of standard containers. The company believes this can lead to significantly higher acceptance from industry partners and end users for branded products and private-label products.
According to the company’s website, consumers can purchase a brand’s participating product in its usual packaging and return it to one of Reo’s take-back partners when empty. Participating packaging can be returned via existing beverage deposit machines at Kaufland and VollCorner, where the consumer will receive €0.29 cashback for each participating package returned, credited to their deposit slip.
A demonstration of Reo’s washing process in a specially developed facility was given at the event. Johanna Meier, Environmental Engineer & LCA Expert at Life Cycle Engineering GaBi and Fraunhofer IBP Stuttgart concluded the session by presenting the results of the life cycle assessments for the participating packaging in detail.
In other news, Portugal launched its national Deposit Return System (DRS) for ready-to-drink beverage packaging, introducing over 3,000 collection points including baling capabilities at remote kiosk locations. Consumers pay a set deposit value of €0.10 per container, which is refunded when they return their empty packaging to a reverse vending machine or manual take-back point across the nationwide collection network.
TOMRA recently outlined the five key factors behind the world’s highest-performing deposit return schemes (DRS) for drinks container recycling and noted increasing public and policy demand to address plastic pollution, slow rising recycling costs and move towards circular economy models. TOMRA’s recommendations are based on DRS performance evidence, evaluating deposit systems against metrics such as return rate and the number of return locations per capita.
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