The trick with which Romanians trick the recycling machines and take money for the rejected bottles, which are not in the program. The method works until June 30

Romanians have discovered a way to get money from recycling returnable packaging, even when these bottles are not part of the Guarantee-Return System (SGR).

Practically, with every purchase of a plastic bottle, aluminum can or glass bottle in any store, a guarantee of 50 money is paid, exclusively for products bearing the SGR logo.

Currently, there are still products on the market without this logo, for which the buyers are not charged the guarantee of 50 money and which cannot be returned to the machines in the stores.

More than 100 million packages have been returned by consumers, which means €10 million returned following the initial warranty stoppage. And for one billion packages were put on the market by manufacturers in the last months.

Where does the money go that is not recovered from bottles in recycling

The Guarantee-Return system is operated by a company that operates on the “not for profit” principle.

Which means that any profit made by the company from the collection of beverage packaging will be reinvested, exclusively, in the development of SGR.

The company was created by a consortium of three private shareholders:

– Association of Romanian Breweries for the Environment (30%)

– Soft Drink Manufacturers Association for Sustainability (30%)

– The Association of Retailers for the Environment (20%) and a public shareholder, the Romanian state, through the central environmental authority, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests (20%).

RetuRO, the SGR administrator, operates with exclusively private funding and has the role of ensuring transparency on the quantities of beverage packaging placed on the market and returned by consumers, contributing to the sustainable development of Romania, through the responsible management of packaging waste, in order to reach the targets of recycling imposed on Romania by the European Union.

The method by which Romanians can trick the machines and take money on bottles that are not in the program

A video circulating on social media shows how non-recyclable bottles can be turned into recyclable ones.

Journalists from a well-known site confirmed this through a successful experiment. However, this method will only work until June 30, when ineligible bottles in the program will be removed.

However, the Romanians found a way to bypass the Guarantee-Return System and receive money for these products.

A TikTok user posted a video of a plastic bottle without the SGR logo, on which he pasted another barcode printed over the existing one, subsequently receiving a 50-money voucher.

The experiment worked, but this will not happen again for much longer.

Starting from July 1, it will no longer be possible to introduce products that fall under the scope of SGR, without being inscribed with the specific logo and barcode.

So, until June 30, both types of packaging will be able to circulate in the market, with the SGR logo, i.e. bearing a guarantee, and without the SGR logo, for which no guarantee is charged, according to libertatea.ro.

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