Founded in Norway in 1972 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Tomra now has activities in more than 55 countries around the world. Their office in Xiamen is Tomra’s first China office.
‘Helping the world recycle’
Tomra’s business activities can be divided into three segments, namely collection technology, material handling, and industrial processing technology.
Photo: TomraTomra’s collection technology consists of R&D, production and sale of reverse vending machines used to collect recyclable bottles and cans with deposit in retail stores. There are 65,000 Tomra reverse vending machines installed around the world, making Tomra the no. 1 internationally in this segment.
Material handling is the operation, pick-up and other similar services related to the reverse vending machines and is a part of Tomra’s activities on the US East Coast, Canada and California.
An increasingly important part of Tomra’s activities is the industrial processing technology segment. Through the use of sensors and optical recognition, Tomra’s technology accurately sort waste, food or other materials – with significant reductions in both material use and waste as a result. This technology enables sorting of many different input streams such as household waste, polymers, paper, aluminum and other metals, glass and complex material mix from electronic waste or scrapped cars. In this way, materials may be used more efficiently, valuable materials can be recycled and dangerous manual sorting jobs eliminated. The same technology is also used in different applications such as mining and food quality sorting.
Environmental solutions for China?
According to Tomra’s Managing Director of the Xiamen branch, Mr. Even Rekdal, Tomra plans for a long term involvement in China. We would like to be “in China, for China” says Rekdal, explaining that Tomra plan to both source, develop, produce and sell in China. Crucial factors for success when selling in the diverse and complex Chinese market is market knowledge, adaption of the products and services to the need in the Chinese market and also local production of the goods.
Tomra’s arrival in Xiamen is a very positive development, says Consul General Tormod C. Endresen. There is a considerable potential for Tomra’s technology in China, perhaps in particular in sorting and recycling of waste. China is a global hub for recycling – and Guangzhou alone produces approximately 14,000 tons of garbage a day, most of which are either placed in landfills or incinerated. Automatic sorting may make a lot of sense, both economically and financially, adds Mr. Endresen.