National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan

As part of the initiative, a reverse vending machine was officially launched on 23 September in Tashkent, in front of the Committee’s building at 7A Bunyodkor Avenue, Chilanzar District. Another machine was installed in the centre of Surkhandarya Region and was also launched on the same day. The project is being implemented in cooperation with Norway-based TOMRA, a company with more than 50 years of experience in automated collection and sorting technologies for used beverage containers. The initiative aims to develop separate waste collection, return recyclable materials to the economic cycle and encourage public participation in environmental initiatives.

The reverse vending machine automatically accepts plastic and glass bottles as well as aluminium beverage containers, enabling them to be collected and sorted separately for subsequent recycling.When returning containers, users can choose between two options. Under the first option, users receive a financial reward of 150 sums for each container accepted by the machine. The payment is transferred via the Click payment system to the user’s Click e-wallet. Alternatively, users can choose to donate the proceeds to charitable causes. In this case, the funds generated from the sale of the collected containers are directed towards charitable purposes as well as tree-planting initiatives. In this way, returning a used beverage container gives citizens not only an opportunity to receive a financial reward, but also a way to contribute to environmental protection and support charitable initiatives.

Collecting beverage containers separately from other household waste helps preserve their suitability for recycling, enables the production of high-quality secondary raw materials and facilitates the reuse of materials. This, in turn, helps reduce the need for primary natural resources in the production of new goods. The collection of containers through reverse vending machines and their subsequent transfer for recycling also helps reduce the amount of waste ending up on streets, in water bodies and at landfills. As a result, a used container is transformed from waste destined for disposal into a resource with economic value.

If the pilot project delivers successful results, the reverse vending machines are planned to be gradually installed in high-traffic and densely populated locations in Tashkent and other regions of the country.