Norway firm latest to roll out rewards-for-cans machines

Residents here may soon have more opportunities to recycle their used drink bottles and cans in exchange for vouchers and refunds, as a Norwegian company looks at deploying reverse vending machines in Singapore.

The company, Tomra, developed the world's first fully automated reverse vending machine for recycling beverage containers in 1972 - and is now the world's leading provider of such solutions.

In efforts to raise the recycling rate of drink bottles and cans in Singapore, since 2019, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and F&N Foods have rolled out 50 of their own reverse vending machines, which dispense shopping rewards and ActiveSG credits, among other incentives.

The addition of Tomra's machines would add to Singapore's recycling initiatives.

"Our aim is to eventually deploy as many of our reverse vending machines as possible in Singapore. We will be looking for opportunities to deploy our (machines), such as participating in NEA's upcoming Beverage Container Return Scheme," said Ms Bing Zhao, Tomra's vice-president and head of collection for Asia, yesterday.

Singapore is in the midst of developing a return policy for beverage containers where a deposit is included in their price. A refund will be given when the used bottles and cans are returned.

Ms Zhao was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of Tomra's new Resource Transformation Centre in Ang Mo Kio, which will serve as a visitor centre and a research and development facility for waste-recovery solutions.

The 2,000 sq ft facility has a showroom for visitors that exhibits three of Tomra's various models of reverse vending machines, and the smart technologies that power and customise them.

The showroom also features educational videos on waste issues, recycling, and the need for a circular economy. Visitors can deposit bottles into the three machines at the centre to learn how they work.

Admission to the centre at Block 4010 Techplace 1 is free, but visitors must make an appointment by sending an e-mail to ck.chai@ tomra.com

Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor launched the new centre yesterday alongside Norway's Ambassador to Singapore Eivind Homme.

Dr Khor said Singapore has engaged Tomra and other technology providers to learn from their experiences with similar bottle-return schemes overseas.

The centre's staff and researchers will also work on designing a network of reverse vending machines that are space-efficient and most suitable for Singapore.

The machines in Singapore will be programmed to refund users easily through PayNow, PayLah!, ez-link, or in the form of shopping vouchers. Users can also choose to donate their rewards.

Tomra's reverse vending machines are equipped with smart technologies that can identify different types of containers.

They will also automatically flatten and sort the bottles and cans so that the recycling process after the collection will be seamless.

To date, the 50 vending machines under NEA and F&N Foods have collected more than 10 million beverage containers, noted Dr Khor.

"As people continue to develop the good habit of returning their drink containers, I hope it will help set the stage for the successful roll-out of (the) proposed Beverage Container Return Scheme in future," added Dr Khor.

"We can only achieve a circular economy when recycling right becomes second nature to us."

Tomra has installed about 80,000 machines in over 60 markets globally, collecting more than 40 billion empty cans and bottles a year.