VANA enters into agreements on plastic sorting with Resource Denmark and Verdis.

The responsibility for collecting, sorting, and ensuring a high level of recycling of Danes' packaging waste will transfer from the country's municipalities to the approximately 7000 companies, which from the cut-off date on October 1, 2025, will be subject to producer responsibility for packaging. Before then, these many companies must sign up for a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) that will handle the management of producer responsibility for packaging on their behalf.

Now the absolutely largest of the producer responsibility organisations, VANA, has selected its future partners regarding the recycling of households' sorting of plastic with food and beverage cartons. It will be ReSource Denmark in Esbjerg and Verdis in Aalborg that will carry out the task. According to VANA's CEO, Marianne Roed Jakobsen, the choice fell on these two Danish-based actors because they offer high traceability of the waste and excellent recycling prospects.

“With ReSource Denmark and Verdis, we ensure a solution where Danish packaging waste is sorted in Jutland - under VANA's high requirements for sorting and recycling. There is full openness and transparency in our agreements, so we always know where the waste is and who receives it. This way, we can ensure that very high proportions of Danes' plastic and food and beverage carton packaging are sorted and sent on for recycling as a resource. This also gives Danish packaging producers assurance that their packaging waste will not suddenly appear in the media in pictures from a beach in Malaysia,” says Marianne Roed Jakobsen.

Effective waste sorting and high recycling rates

The overarching purpose of introducing producer responsibility is to reduce the quantity of packaging, ensure effective collection and handling of packaging waste - and to motivate companies towards better and more environmentally friendly design of packaging. The expectation is that nearly 1 million tons of packaging will be processed annually across all packaging fractions. This will shift a bill of about 2.3 billion DKK from Danish municipalities to companies, while also ensuring responsible recycling of the packaging.

In the producer responsibility for packaging, there is also an economic incentive for companies to act more sustainably. They must pay a lower price per kilogram for packaging materials that can be reused to a greater extent. Conversely, it will be more expensive to place packaging on the market that is difficult to sort and recycle. However, the prerequisite for all of this remains that the packaging is sorted at households and does not end up in residual waste.

"Denmark has great ambitions for sustainable waste management with producer responsibility for packaging. To meet these ambitions, it is crucial that the packaging waste ends up at the sorting facilities that are best equipped to sort the waste and can ensure transparency and traceability throughout the value chain. We look forward to taking on a significant part of this responsibility and are proud that VANA has chosen for around 70,000 tons of plastic and food and beverage cartons from Danish households to be sorted with us each year - initially until 2028. That we receive two-thirds of Denmark's plastic from households for sorting is not only good for the climate - it also creates the foundation for a new, Danish circular industry with Esbjerg as a hub," says Flemming Horn Nielsen, who is the CEO of ReSource Denmark.

A Possible Boost for the Denmark-Based Waste Industry

By transporting the Danish households' plastics and food and beverage cartons to sorting facilities in Jutland, the climate is also spared unnecessary transport abroad. VANA hopes at the same time that the collective organisation's choice of Danish facilities can give the sorting and recycling industry in Denmark a massive boost. This may help attract new investments and place Denmark at the forefront in the field. Thus, Denmark develops as a hub for Europe's leading recycling industry, creating new green jobs.

Verdis in Aalborg sees good opportunities for this to happen. Especially if the Danish waste industry manages to conduct its business in accordance with the highest professional, ethical, and legal standards. The sorting facility is expected to receive approximately 8,500 tons of plastics and food and beverage cartons from Danish households going forward. The ambition is that the vast majority of the material will continue on to leading recycling facilities.

”We are very proud that VANA has chosen us to help lift the producer responsibility for packaging in Denmark. We see this as a validation of our high-quality strategy, where the waste is, among other things, finely sorted by hand, so that as much as possible is sent on for recycling,” says Stefan Olin, who is the CEO of Verdis.