Within the framework of the declared goal of circular economy and sustainable development, the European Parliament has voted for recycling Regulation (EU) 2025/40, which mandates the implementation of a deposit return system for plastic and metal materials using exclusively automatic machines for all European countries, such as the well-known recycling stations operating in more than one hundred municipalities across our country.
Read: European Commission: The audit conducted vindicates recycling stations
The European Union has set a mandatory quantitative target of recycling 90% of plastic and metal packaging by the end of 2028. For this purpose, citizens will pay an additional amount when purchasing products (water, soft drinks, beer, juices), defined as a deposit fee (which in Greece will be €0.10 for products up to 0.5 liters and €0.15 for larger capacity), which they will receive back (in voucher form) when recycling these packages.
In Greece, the effort to create the packaging deposit return system began with the participation of companies Coca-Cola 3E, Epirus Bottling Industry (VIKOS), CHITOS (Zagori), Athenian Brewery, Olympic Brewery, DIOS Water (Sp. Theodoropoulos Group), LOUX Marlafeka, Arrena Water (Tsakos Group) and the Hellenic Supermarket Association (with participation from Sklavenitis, Lidl, AB Vassilopoulos, Masoutis, My Market, Galaxias supermarkets). The Greek government has passed legislation for the deposit system to begin on December 1, 2025.
The president of the company that has undertaken TOMRA’s PR in our country participates in the consulting firm that drafted the technical specifications for automatic recycling machines for Greece’s national DRS system, “photographing” TOMRA’s machines
Recycling: V-NETRINO with €46,000 profits and photographic technical specifications
Companies wishing to create the collective deposit return system in our country are required to draft a business plan, which must be submitted to the Hellenic Recovery and Recycling Corporation, supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, for approval and system operation to begin by December 2025. This business plan must specify, among other things, the technical specifications of recycling machines to be used and their cost.
The participating companies assigned V-Netrino, in collaboration with EY, to draft this business plan. V-Netrino undertook drafting technical specifications and communicating with recycling machine manufacturers. The General Commercial Registry (GEMI) shows that V-Netrino is a Private Capital Company (IKE) with share capital of €21,000 and among its shareholders (with 44%) and manager is Mr. Stefanos Komninos, currently Deputy Secretary of the Development and Investment Sector of PASOK, who also served as Secretary of Commerce under the PASOK government.
A simple review of the company’s website reveals that Mr. Antonis Gkortzis belongs to V-Netrino’s staff, as he is a distinguished member of VNetrino’s Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship with responsibility for Business Ethics (Source: https://v-netrino.com/about-us/).
Published financial statements in GEMI show that VNetrino is a rather small company with turnover of €185,206.75 in 2023 and profits of €46,414.32. Based on this data, it’s questionable how it managed to have such a key role in such a large project involving some of Greece’s biggest companies. However, discussions recently began among members of companies participating in the deposit system organization being established in our country, claiming that V-Netrino has drafted technical specifications that “photograph” the recycling machines of Norwegian company TOMRA.
The photographic technical specifications drafted by V-Netrino and revealed today exclusively were as follows:
Category 1: (indicative speed 45 pieces/minute) – Number of package receptacles and number of packages each receptacle accepts – 2 storage bins (1 bin = 1 europallet).
Category 2: (indicative speed 60 pieces/minute) – Number of package receptacles and number of packages each receptacle accepts – 4 storage bins (1 bin = 1 europallet).
Category 3: (indicative speed 100 pieces/minute) – Number of package receptacles and number of packages each receptacle accepts – 7 storage bins (1 bin = 1 europallet).
The role of Antonis Gkortzis
Norwegian TOMRA established its subsidiary company in Greece just last year under the name TOMRA COLLECTION GREECE Single Member S.A. Obviously, for TOMRA to succeed in the Greek market, it sought a strategic partner for promotion. Thus it assigned One Team company public relations and lobbying services (Source: https://marketingweek.gr/ stin-oneteam-ta-pr-tis-tomra-collectiongreece/).
But who is One Team’s President? A simple review of the company’s website shows that Mr. Antonis Gkortzis is its President (Source: https://worldoneteam.com/aboutus), who is also a member of V-Netrino’s Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship.
Therefore, our journalistic investigation reveals today that the President of the company handling TOMRA’s public relations and lobbying in Greece also participates in VNetrino, which drafted technical specifications for automatic machines for the DRS Hellas organization being established and has “photographed” TOMRA’s machines. The question arising today is what all the major companies participating in the DRS Hellas organization being established will do, now that a major corruption scandal is being revealed.
The question arising today is what all the major companies participating in the DRS Hellas organization being established will do, now that a major corruption scandal is being revealed
TOMRA in Malta, journalist murder and imprisonment for corruption
However, scandals and corruption seem to be familiar words for Norwegian company TOMRA. Such a case was TOMRA’s activities in Malta, where TOMRA assigned its official representation in Malta to Mr. Malcolm Scerri, who was the business partner and managing director of the company owned by Mr. Keith Schembri, who was Chief of Staff to Malta’s Prime Minister, Mr. Joseph Muscat. Mr. Malcolm Scerri’s company that became TOMRA’s official representative was Acumen Projects Limited, established in 2014. Note that Mr. Keith Schembri had already assumed duties as Prime Minister’s Office Director from March 11, 2013.
During the same period, Malta’s government decided to implement a national deposit return system by installing recycling centers, like those manufactured by Norwegian company TOMRA and American company ENVIPCO. Everyone in Malta then assumed that TOMRA would obviously emerge as the exclusive supplier of recycling equipment through its local official representative. Since all this seems almost surreal for a European country, our journalistic investigation sought verification of this data from Maltese media.
Indeed, this information was confirmed by numerous sources from local media. The reputable Maltese medium “Times of Malta” has detailed information on this topic (Source: https://timesofmalta.com/article/ keith-schembri-plays-down-links-to-newrecycling-venture.669870). While everyone in Malta was convinced TOMRA would win the tender for installing recycling centers, an unexpected and shocking event changed the story.
That event was the murder of Maltese journalist and activist Ms. Daphne Caruana Galizia on October 16, 2017, when her car was blown up by an explosive device while driving. This journalist was conducting extensive research on the notorious Panama papers and had implicated the then-powerful Prime Minister’s Office Director, Mr. Keith Schembri. The police investigation led to the arrest of three individuals as the physical executors of the murder, while Mr. Keith Schembri was named (by those arrested) as the moral perpetrator of the murder.
Following this, Mr. Keith Schembri resigned as Prime Minister’s Office Director and an extensive police investigation into his life and conduct began, resulting in his imprisonment for corruption, fraud and money laundering. His co-defendant in various cases was Malcolm Scerri (TOMRA’s official representative), who was the business partner and managing director of the company owned by Mr. Keith Schembri (Sources: https:// timesofmalta.com/article/keith-schembriothers-in-prison-as-unprecedentedcorruption-cases.859279,https://www. maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_ police/108747/live_compilation_of_ evidence_against_keith_schembri_and_ associates_continues_2, https://lovinmalta. com/news/keith-schembri-is-officiallyunder-investigation-for-murder-and5-other-takeaways-from-todays-courtsitting/ etc.). Obviously, after these shocking developments TOMRA did not win the tender for Malta’s national deposit return system recycling centers. 100% of this procurement was won by American company ENVIPCO.
We continue our journalistic investigation into recycling in Greece, competition conditions in the Greek market, while further investigating TOMRA company, so that its works and actions become widely known to the Greek public, as it plans to operate in Greece relying on corruption.
Published in Parapolitika
