How Digital Payments Can Drive the Shift Towards Circular Economy and Waste Reduction
What if you could do something positive for the environment every time you get a beer at a festival or bring dinner home in a takeaway box? If it sounds far-fetched, then think again.
With a new partnership between Switchio and TOMRA, a world leader in waste collection and recycling, you could soon enjoy your takeaway and exchange the used packaging for money.
And if you live in Aarhus, Denmark, you already can!
That’s where this innovative, pioneering project is now being piloted, starting in January 2024, and planned to run for three years.
About the pilot
The first stage of the project will collect reusable hot and cold drink containers. Customers can now return their used cups to one of TOMRA’s automated collection points and get their cup deposit back directly on their account or card. All they have to do is tap the reader installed at every collection point with their card, phone, or smartwatch.
Why it’s a game-changer
In 2019, more than 17 billion pieces of single-use takeaway containers were used for warm drinks alone. And with the continuing increase of on-the-go consumption, this number is sure to increase in the future. The trend was further accelerated during the covid-19 pandemic, creating a pressing need to find ways to reduce single-use plastics through circular economy.
Combining state-of-the-art contactless payment technology with TOMRA’s collection points, customers can now contribute to the reuse of plastics and reduction of greenhouse gasses released during their production more comfortably than ever and get rewarded for doing it too.
Where do we come in
As a provider of Point-of-Sale gateway and terminal management systems, we enable the entire payment and reimbursement side of the process. When a drink in a reusable cup is purchased, the cup has an active deposit value. When the empty cup is then returned at a collection point, a digital token is generated when the user taps their bank card on the machine’s payment terminal. This token is used as an alias of the actual bank card number during the verification of the card and the subsequent repayment of the deposit to the bank card.
At Switchio, we care about the planet. And we are proud to offer our expertise on the European market to help TOMRA introduce new ways to implement circular economy into everyday lives and drive the world towards a greener, more sustainable approach to plastics through convenient digital payments.
TOMRA is committed to using innovative technology to optimize resource productivity across a range of industries, and in January we launched a new system for reusable takeaway packaging in a pilot project with the municipality of Aarhus in Denmark. In this pilot, Switchio has served as a key partner in developing the system used to refund the deposit on the reusable cups to consumers' bank cards at our automated collection points. Switchio's experience and attention to detail has been a great asset to us, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration.
