With me today, I have Espen Gundersen, our CFO, and Georgiana Radulescu, our head of IR. It would be a pleasure for me to take you through Q2 results of today. Espen will later go through the financial details a little bit deeper. Next page, please, Georgiana. It was a good quarter, something really to be proud of. Revenues increasing with 27%. Strong development in Collection Solutions, strong development in Recycling Mining. 43% and 33% respectively growth there in revenues. Growth in TOMRA Food 6% after adjustment for currencies. Now, when we talk about these strong growth numbers, we should of course, not forget that last year, Q2 was our worst quarter when it comes to the pandemic. Nevertheless, these are the numbers, and they are strong. Gross margin was moving up.
Good contribution for Collection Solutions, predominantly product mix issues. Operating expenses, good control. They increased by 5%. We are still lower on a running level, since a lot of measures were taken during the pandemic, and we have still not yet come back to the same activity levels when it comes to being able to travel out and meet customers, taking part to trade shows and so on. Operating expenses are lower, but increasing with 5% quarter-on-quarter. Strong development in earnings. EBITA up 60%, ending at NOK 465 million. Strong cash flow, resulting out of strong earnings and good working capital management. All-time high order intake growth of 38% for Recycling Mining and Food combined. We have positive momentum in all divisions, all segment, and basically also in all geographies.
Also now results in an all-time high order backlog of just north of NOK 2 billion, which is up 25% compared to last year. COVID is still affecting our business. Not dramatically, and much better, of course, compared to last year. We have some small hiccups or lockdowns in parts of the world, especially right now, maybe in Australia a little bit more than anywhere else. Nothing dramatic. What more is challenging is, of course, our inability to travel, to meet customers, to service customers, and also delay in customer execution. We see that also on the revenue side. We could have delivered more. TOMRA was capable of delivering more, but the customers were not ready. Especially when you have bigger, complex installations, you need many suppliers to come in. You need more teams for installation, for commissioning, for starting up all the operations.
That is not running as smooth as we have experienced it in the past. Beyond that, we also have some challenges in terms of logistics. Hiring of containers, hiring of transport, both access to it and cost of it is increasing. There are areas of components that are challenged as well. So far, our team has been doing a great job in securing deliveries. Right now, and what we can anticipate, we are not affected negatively by access to components. Of course, prices are going up for them, and it remains an area of cautiousness. Most likely, if it continues, situation will stabilize. Of course, we know there are new virus variants out there, and we just need to remain cautious and vigilant to the situation. All in all, a strong quarter, as you can see.
With that, I go to the next element. That was two, that's perfect. Collection Solutions. All in all, very solid growth for the quarter. For H1 year, we have seen a tremendous development. Much driven, of course, by the new market, Holland here, which went live with a new deposit system or extended deposit system, we must say, July 1 this year. That illustration you have on the top left corner is actually quite interesting. A little bit about the TOMRA story, which is, I would say, unique. Let me take you through that storyline. Remember, TOMRA was founded in 1972. 1983 already, we thought Holland could be, or the Netherlands could be an important market for us. We established an entity there, 1983. It took almost 20 years until something happened.
2001, the legislators, the minister of environment, decided that deposit on large bottles, bigger than 0.8 liters, would be introduced. That then went live in 2005. Again, a little bit more than 20 years after 1983. That was only for large bottles, remember. In 2012, the system was really under attack. The industry, different industry players tried to abolish it, tried to prove that it was possible to do a good result without. The government allowed them to test out alternative solutions, but they failed. They did not deliver on these assumptions, on these promises. Now we have a completely new situation. As of July 1 this year, also small PET bottles are included, and in 2022 we will then have aluminum cans also. The system will be what we call a complete system.
This is really telling you a little bit about the long time it takes, the tenacity it takes from a player like TOMRA to be there, to support, to influence, demonstrate results. I never give up. I must say, our Dutch team here, together with our governmental affairs team, have been working tremendously on this case over the years. A lot of innovation, a lot of passion, many battles that we don't see in this illustration. I'm quite proud of it. Again, if you follow TOMRA, this illustrates a little bit how we work and what makes us unique. Of course, our industry as such is unique in itself. No one other industry has this deposit system, but they might have similar regulations. Good quarter, very solid quarter, really. Espen will take you through the numbers.
The story on Holland, which went live now on July 1, I think was worth talking about. If you look at the right side, we have one , two, three, four, five, six new markets coming up. If you look in a period of time about a little bit north of 12 months, starting January 2022, we are now expecting more new markets or market extensions than we have ever had in the history. Slovakia, Latvia, which is, by the way, we were awarded the contract, as you remember, and the contract was now signed yesterday. Again, a great achievement there. Scotland, potential delay there, but hopefully not. We have the Netherlands, the second leg, as I talked about the cans. Victoria and Australia, and a modernization of the Connecticut system, which is very well appreciated by us. Connecticut has had a deposit system since many years.
They're actually increasing the deposit value from $0.05 - 0.10, which we anticipate will lead to much higher collection volumes and a modernization and a more robust system. That was a challenge system in the past. I think this decision will hopefully bring it to a good, hopefully world-class system over time. Collection, they will actually be up for a little bit of a slower period now for a couple of quarters, Espen will talk about that, but there's a lot of potential in the future and a very strong now first half year here. With that, I would like to move on to talk about Recycling Mining. Recycling, as you know, we are in the sorting of many waste fractions. Everything from plastics, metals, household waste or municipal solid waste, we call that. Industrial waste, we're talking about construction, demolition waste.
In many sectors. TOMRA has a leading position here with a global market share of estimated 55%. We were through a little bit slower period three quarters last year. We had a lower order intake, now we have seen a robust rebound and a growth here in this year of order intake of 48%. A strong comeback there in order intake, also good revenues growth in the quarter. We have seen good drive through higher commodity prices. You can see on the top right figure there, the PET values, both for recycled PET, rPET, and for virgin PET. The commodity prices are higher. That's important for the industry. That's also an indication of higher demand. We also had a good catch up now in metals.
Metals has been weak during the year, commodity prices demand is increasing. We're seeing global demand improvement here. Again, this business is in a solid stage, and we anticipate it will be attractive also going forward. Some of the drivers here, there is a lot of potential to get much more plastic out of the household waste than we do today. More than double the amount. That's important because in order to transform the world to circular economy, we need that feedstock of material. We need to learn how to extract the material out of municipal solid waste, and TOMRA is having the technologies to do that. That's something we're going to work on focusing on going forward. Of course, the increased quality demand. In order to use plastics in new products, we need to raise the quality level, create standards.
Here, again, the high-precision sorting of TOMRA is critical. I will talk a little bit about a polystyrene shortly, and there I will give you an example of that. That's critical, and this is in a sector we see strong demand. We talk about plastics upgrading, so in recycling facilities, where you now take it to a new level, making it really top-quality products or material. We have the regulations and financial incentives. We think the European plastics tax is very interesting and very important. You might recall that the European Union imposed a tax of EUR 800 per ton, which is not far away from the tradable values of plastic. You can see that in the graph up there. A significant amount. If you use virgin plastics, you have to pay such a fee. If not, if you use recycled, you can avoid that one.
It's a stimulation for circular economy. United Kingdom is having their tax, £200 per ton. Italy and Spain are going with a tax of €450 per ton. Things are happening here, but this initiative still has to shape up and be implemented fully. It's a good signal, and it's a strong signal to the industry that things are happening and plastic cannot be wasted. It needs to be recycled. That's all good for TOMRA. With that, I would like to go over and talk a little bit about the food business we have. As you might recall, food was really challenged, especially the process side, over the last two years. 2019, we had the trade war between U.S. and China, which is still ongoing, affecting about $11 billion of food exports out of U.S. to China.
That was a major disruption for the U.S. food suppliers, and still affecting them. Of course, the pandemic, which hit the food service sector, which is about 50% of the U.S. food consumption and 40% of the European food consumption. When all these restaurants and the catering food services closed down due to the regulations, pandemic related, that part of the business really died out. People continued to consume food, of course, so more through retail consumption and home consumption. The industry was affected badly. Now we see much more positive momentum. Processed food is really coming back. We saw strong growth in potatoes, in nuts, which are critical categories for us, and dried fruit. That is coming back, but it's still not up to full momentum, but it's growing, and the market sentiment is improving as we go on here.
Fresh food was really never an issue. It's been hot demand. It's been strong market momentum throughout the pandemic and still continues to be so. For us, we see strong demand, particularly in cherries and kiwi fruit right now. Blueberries continues to be strong. As you know, TOMRA is also a world number one in food sorting and grading, with an estimated market share of some 30% globally in this big, vast industry. Something really to watch out for there, and it's good to see that the market is strengthening again. Some few highlights on the potatoes side here. We sort about 30%-40% of all potatoes being grown in the world, so that's a big category, as you know, or a big breed of product. We peel some 70%-80% of all the potatoes being processed into, say, French fries.
Here, of course, now working with the data which we are investing in, is increasingly important to maximize the yield, improve performance, and help the operators to reduce their burden to run it. Quarter-on-quarter, potatoes was up 38%. It's a good sign of what's happening in the food business. With that, I'll happy to go to the next page. That would be about Circular Economy. This is a busy slide. I hope I will be able to take you through it. As you know, we started our Circular Economy division, 2019. We recognized there would be a big movement, a big demand for closed-loop solutions, where you not only recycle, but you really take the material back into new products.
We wanted to be leader in that segment and took a really strong drive and focus, put our best people into leading that business and building that business. It's been shaping up tremendously, and today I want to talk about a specific success. That's the material called polystyrene, which stands for about 6% of the plastics. It's not the biggest fraction, but it's an important fraction. Polystyrene is very similar to PET, has some unique properties. It has some barriers so that the contamination from outside do not enter into the plastic. That makes that plastic better for food grade. PET and PS are good for food grade. Polystyrene has been under attack. It's been seen as a problem. Therefore, in 2018, the Styrenics industry formed Styrenics Circular Solutions. Very much formed through the chemical industry in order to tackle the problem.
Of course, initially they were looking for chemical recycling of the material, and we then came in contact with SCS in 2019, and in 2020 we joined them. We then started making some tests with the aim to show them that it's possible to deliver food-grade polystyrene out of mechanical recycling, which is where we really have our long experience. We started doing some manual works, and then we implemented our new facility in Germany, together with we do with Borealis, as we have talked about before, and there we have now been able to process 40 tons for them, and been able to prove that we can deliver 99.9% pure material out of normal household waste coming out of Germany and Norway.
Really, the source you want to address it from, so the municipal solid waste getting collected from consumers, then extracting the polystyrene out of that, predominantly yogurt cans, treating that through sorting, washing, flaking, and making that into new product. Now we are at the stage that we have submitted our application to European authorities and to Swiss food authorities to approve this product for food grade. If that happens, we have really made, I would call a revolution in the industry. This is exactly what TOMRA is about. This is exactly what we want to achieve with circular economy. This is something to watch out for, and if we succeed with this, we should get a medal, because this is really a big showcase for transforming how we can use waste and make new products food grade out of that.
Again, it's an important sector. Sorry for talking long, but I'm very excited about this whole initiative, and let's keep our fingers crossed, actually, that we go all the way and get it food grade approved. With that, I will hand over to Espen and let him take you through the financials. Thank you.
Thank you, Stefan. Yeah, as always, we look at currencies. We experienced Q1 last year a significant depreciation of the Norwegian crown. The comp figures we have for Q2 this year is very influenced by currencies and consequently, please look at the currency adjusted figures as you have some headwind on currency, particularly against the dollar, but also against the euro. Moving to next page on the P&L. As Stefan said, it really is a strong month. We have 16% currency adjusted growth in the quarter. All divisions are contributing, but in particular, the collection and recycling divisions are 43 and 33 percentage points currency adjusted up. In addition, we have improved gross margins. It's partly about somewhat low margin in collection last year, COVID related, but also very strong mix effects on the margin side of collection this year.
Cost is overall under good control. We have 12% up currency adjusted. Please also keep in mind the investments we are doing in circular economy. We are now on NOK 15 million round figures on quarterly cost on the circular economy initiatives from NOK 10 million same quarter last year, reported as part of the TRM division's OpEx, and also all the ramp-up cost in Collection Solutions, which on figures was NOK 20 million last year, now NOK 30 million. What we spend overall was normal for preparing for new markets because of all those opportunities that we see out there, which we need to position ourselves for them. Even with those increases, we see the quarter end at NOK 465 million. It's 104% up from last year. It's 17.3% EBITDA margin. Actually very close to our long-term financial target of 18%.
Of course, as I said, we have low comp figure, easy comp figures, because of Q2 last year was really the COVID quarter. If you go back and also compare ourself with Q2 2019, meaning going two years back, the figures are very strong. You see the graphs on the bottom left and bottom right and see that, yes, Q2 2020 stood out in a negative way, but Q2 this year is also standing out significantly in a positive way regardless of what quarter you are comparing against. Moving to the divisions. The Collection has a lot of recurring revenues. Almost 50% of revenues is service-related, which is per definition, recurring. All the part from stemming from sales, so that's also recurring after 10 years in the new machine.
The bottom, the collection business is very stable and usually don't fluctuate very much between quarters and years. You have the events and understanding TOMRA's performance is important to understand when you have these events. The events we have been benefiting from the last two quarters, is in particular Netherlands, which Stefan mentioned, introduction on deposit of small bottles with commencement 1st of July this year. Germany, which has built during September, get new requirements of security markings on labels, which increase the price of the products on bottles. We see additional orders coming in have been delivered upfront of that. The increase in revenues, 2021 versus 2020 in Europe ex-Norway, is mainly stemming from these two markets and is an event that we currently are benefiting from.
On margin side, up, as I mentioned, because of good mix and low handling fees and OpEx is increasing due to ramp-up costs in particular. Bottom line, 20% EBITDA margin in one of the absolutely best margins we have ever reported in collection history. Moving on to Recycling Mining. Starting on the bottom left. The order intake was hit by the COVID situation for the three last quarters last year. We have seen a good uptick starting first quarter, and it continued this quarter. We have an all-time high order intake. Also, the order backlog has increased. There are probably some project that have been somewhat delayed. Not from our side, but it's more customers that not prepared to take delivery because of the vendors and so on has been delayed. There are some challenges in that area.
In a more normal world, we probably could have delivered somewhat more out of the order backlog. It gives us a good position going into third and fourth quarter with this high order backlog and a trend of good momentum that Stefan talked about. On the P&L, we reported NOK 439 million in revenues. That's spot on 60% conversion ratio we indicated last quarter. We have some OpEx increase, remember the investments we do in circular economy and bottom line, NOK 94 million, 21% came in as a decent quarter. Moving on to food. Again, looking at the order situation. Food was at a very good trajectory before COVID hit us, looking at the intake development throughout 2019. Then we got three lower quarters, particularly the processed segment did go down.
We have increased order intake and is the third consecutive quarter with the higher order intake. We also have built a strong backlog and also in food, we have all-time high order backlog by the end of this quarter. On the P&L side, we indicated 75% conversion ratio ended at 72.5%, slightly below the indication. We managed 43% on the margin side. Very good OpEx control in food, we are flat-ish in fixed currencies. It brings the EBITDA margin up to 14%. On the balance sheet, remember there are seasonalities in the material recovery business in the U.S. is tying up working capital during the summer months because it mirrors the drinking consumption and we have higher activity and then high working capital during those months and quarters.
It's usually more meaningful to compare yourself with a balance sheet 12 months ago and not 6 months ago. Doing that, there is not really many items standing out if you adjust for currencies. The working capital has improved compared to one year ago. That also is reflected in the cash flow from operations, as you see on the graph on the top right side. Both Q2 and year to date, we are doing better on cash flow from operations than we did the same quarters and half years last year. Still a solid balance sheet, close to 50% equity, low gearing. This is also after the dividend of NOK 3 per share that was paid out back in May. Next slide. We have NOK 876 million of unused available funding sources, 2.5 years weighted average debt maturity.
We are in a good position. Access to cheap financing is easy, so it is actually an easy job to be the CFO of this company when it comes to financing. I am privileged. Moving on to the outlook statements. We are no doubt very much influenced, in a positive way, by all the macro drivers that helps us. There is a lot of focus on green tech, clean tech companies, but we are really in the middle of this, and there are very concrete demands out there, and we have very concrete solutions for many of these. Sensor-based sorting solutions is really something the world needs in all three divisions. Finding solutions on the plastic challenges, finding circular solutions and so on, is really what the world is looking for. I am very optimistic and I am confident on the opportunities that we have ahead of us.
At the strategy session, one of our board members said that through his 30 years in business, he had never seen a company with so many opportunities that TOMRA has today. I think management also can confirm that. The overall picture is just no doubt looking very good. We also have to accept that to deliver upon these opportunities, to capture those opportunities, we need to invest. Going forward, we also will need to increase costs compared to the cost base we have today. It goes for all divisions. Some quarters, you will probably see that OpEx increase higher than revenues for enabling us to execute on this. You also have to remember that we have been through a period of low or negative OpEx increase during the COVID period.
No or very limited traveling, limited use of consultants, some initiatives put on hold to be on the cautious side. Now that things normalize and the market's opening up again, we also will, for that reason, see some higher costs in some quarters, which will happen because of course, we have been more digital, and we will not travel as much as we've done previously. There will be more traveling, for instance, and this will also be reflected in the accounts in the quarters to come here. This is also things you have to take with you when you look at the total picture and the opportunities. If you go into the divisions in Collection, there are currently very high activity related to preparations for new markets. Stefan pointed out six, seven markets that's close in time.
There are also several others which are in pipeline where the government, obviously, have not set a firm date yet. That is also likely that will materialize. This will be some volatility around the quarterly performance in Collection. We have had Netherlands and Germany the last quarters. Germany will continue into the third quarter. Netherlands will go down. The commencement on the first part of the race, we have reached that date. We get Slovakia, which will compensate a lot for this. Timing, a little uncertain. How big our opportunity will be, still a little uncertain, but it's definitely a good opportunity also, which will replace a lot of this revenue that will disappear. We're going into next year getting Latvia, which is a two-way market, but consequently, the revenue will come over time. We'll get some startup costs.
This will also influence the performance. Going into H2 of next year, we have many new markets that might materialize that will both cost in respect of investment, but also represent great revenue opportunities. All in, we think that there will or could be quarters where OpEx increasing more than revenues, and in particular, the period between the fourth quarter this year and second quarter next year will be very dependent upon the outcome of both decisions and also the timing of costs that we need to absorb to position ourself for the coming quarters. Recycling Mining, good momentum. We expect a conversion ratio of 60%, meaning revenues upcoming quarter will be 60% of the current order backlog. Again, this is not guiding, just an indication for those of you that want to model us on a quarterly basis.
In the long run, we think we are really set up for good growth. Short-term, still COVID could influence negatively, but both in the plastic side and also the commodity price increases we see in metals are helping this Segment. Increasing the momentum and with the conversion rate indicated, you also see it's a good quarter coming up in Recycling. In Food, we estimate the conversion rate was 70%. Also that indicating a good quarter coming up. Also the Segment where COVID still potentially have some negative challenges, but we are also confident in the midterm or long-term that we are in the right industry with the right products and good years are to come. At the end, I just want to mention currencies. Remember, always adjust for that as it fluctuates. Stefan mentioned also component shortage, transportation challenges. We are almost a global company.
We have long value chains. We are exposed to many of the other risks that other companies are. I think in general, we have the situation under control. I do not think, at least to my knowledge, that we have needed to delay any deliveries to customers so far because of component shortages or other of these challenges, at least not in a material way, but just be hectic. We have managed to re-engineer and find ways around, and going forward, we still maintain the risk. We think the risk is under control, but we also want to point out that this also could negatively influence us because this is partly out of control. It is not only about us, it is about our suppliers, and our suppliers' ability to deliver upon their obligation towards us.
With that, I think we can turn the page. Since this is Stefan's last presentation with us, maybe it's a good time to look a little back and reflect a little bit on what's been done the last 10, 12 years on your leadership, Stefan.
Yes. Thank you, Espen. Yeah, it's not so much to I would actually like to talk more about the future than the past, but let's just go through it a bit quickly. For me, I tell you, I think TOMRA is as close to what you can define as a perfect company. We have a very meaningful, purposeful business. We do good for the environment, for reducing food waste, for addressing greenhouse gas emissions, for reducing plastic waste in oceans, on land, by that also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose is really strong, and we have the technologies that can transform industries to deliver better results and new solutions on that. Transformation is really key here.
We have a super strong culture in TOMRA, and we have seen that times over and over again, how the teams, talked about Netherlands before, how they have fought that battle and delivered on a very viable good solution. Look at how we built up Australia. Look at how people are now creating circular economy out of nothing, basically, and how our team in Food is transforming their categories for both processed and food grade. Last but not least, how Collection is just coming into new growth trajectory. We have also been very privileged by having such good shareholders like your good self. Thank you. We have very few times had challenges. You have understood our need to invest, you have supported us in that, and you have supported us all in all. You have been stable, and you have also been rewarded, I think so.
That's good, but that's part of our job to deliver shareholder value. Really, we would like to thank you for that. What we've done in the years, basically when I started in 2009, it was 85% collection business. We had then Recycling, Mining as a kind of startup business. TOMRA was not growing. We have been able to grow it every year now since then. We have built the Food division. We are now number one in the world in Collection Solutions. We're number one in the world in Mining and Recycling, and number one in Food. Strong player with very meaningful technologies that has so much more potential. Because when we add data and the connectivity to it in the future with artificial intelligence, extracting the data, I think there's even more value out of it than we deliver today.
A lot of opportunities, and as we know, the world is really going our way when it comes to the mega trends, when it comes to regulatory changes, it really calls for more of the TOMRA offering out there. Ultimately, we must never forget, we are here to deliver on values to our customers. That's at the core of TOMRA every day, everybody in TOMRA. Premium value to our customers is really what we do with our technologies, with our service people, with our sales and consultants, and all the team behind. We're thinking about R&D, operations, and administration. We are all tuned in to serve our customers. We have expanded into food, as I mentioned. We have also expanded in many geographies, so that we are reaching out more to almost every market.
We are in all continents now where we have business, maybe not in the Antarctica and Arctic, but beyond that, really in all continents, and we are on a growth trajectory. I believe that TOMRA has much more potential in the future than we have delivered in the past, and that's more important to me than what we have delivered. Tove Andersen will take over on August 16. I am very happy for this choice of new leader and wish her all success in that role. It's a fantastic team she will be working with, and it's a fantastic business. I also would like to finalize with saying that we are now really playing in a different league. If you think traditionally, most companies, they are a supplier of a technology. Look how TOMRA is moving beyond that now.
Taking the collection business where we have a strategic partnership with Cleanaway in Australia. We're now looking for how we can do more with Viridor. We're taking a bigger role than just supplying reverse vending machines. We are really being an integral part of that system, adding more value to the market, adding more value to TOMRA, and increasing the robustness. On top of that, which is already a strong development itself, we are stepping up and building this circular economy. If you look into the future, think of the big e-commerce players like take in Amazon, Alibaba. I just use a few names, and there are many of them out there. Those who deliver products, they will need to have sustainable packaging. Otherwise, their growth trajectory will be limited by regulations, and by penalties. They need to handle the waste they generate.
They need to have sustainable packaging. That's something TOMRA can do. If they are on top of that, delivering food products like Jingdong or Alibaba are doing, well, then they will also need a food supply, and they will need to guarantee the food quality. The relevance and the way we tie this together now is actually very unique, and we have the sensor technology as core in everything we do, and here we are continuing to focus. Going forward, continue to invest in new markets, continue to innovate, both when it comes to sensors, the machines, and on the last but not least, digital side, makes me very excited. I believe that closing the door now after 12 years, I'm very proud of what has been done.
I express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart to all of the TOMRA employees that have been supporting me and supporting the leadership team in this development, to the shareholders, to the board, and I can only wish you great success going forward. I firmly believe TOMRA is going to be a greater success tomorrow than it was yesterday. With that, I close and thank you, and now we open up for questions and answers.
Thank you, Stefan. We have the first question is coming from Andre van der Yes. On collection, you talked about modernization of the system in Connecticut. Do you see orders on the short term, and how big is the opportunity compared to European countries like the Netherlands or Slovakia?
Connecticut has been a deposit market for many years, but in the same way as several of the other U.S. markets, it's been a $0.05 Deposit market. They are now increasing from a nickel to a dime in deposit. This will help the system in general, because EUR 0.05 Was maybe an okay amount 20 years ago. Due to inflation and so on, it starts to become a little irrelevant. If you don't adjust the deposit values, the return rates will decrease. You can actually plot the return rates versus the deposit value around the world and see a very high correlation in markets like Germany, where you have EUR 0.25, you have return rates around 98%. In 5-cent markets, in the Northeast U.S., for instance, you are in the 60s at best.
Just the fact that they are doubling the deposit amount is positive for deposit system as such. There are also some more volume going through, and all carbonated drinks will now be a part of the system. Important also is that increase the handling fee, meaning the retailers or redemption centers that are taking back the empties will now get paid for this, and then this will make it more financially attractive to invest in technology and machines. I would assume, from the top of my head, there are a bit more than 1,000 machines in Connecticut today. It will be possible to both review and sell some new machines as this materialize. It is not today. It's coming stepwise the next years, these initiatives.
It is not something that we influence or report as material in the short term. Over the next years, it will have a positive impact. Also, in particular, because we see that now the Northeast states in the U.S. are doing something on the deposit systems, and I hope the other ones will come after in due time.
Thank you. The next question is from Daniel Haugland from ABG. You mentioned higher commodity prices will negatively influence production costs of own products. Could you give some more color on this? To what degree are you able to pass these costs on to the customers?
There is in general a cost increase on almost all components and materials today. I also think this is partly preliminary. When things start to normalize and things are becoming a balance, I think some of these prices will go down again. We, like most other companies, do experience increased cost and we have processes to pass this on to customers. I think customers in general are aware of this and also to some extent accept it. Our costs in general has been 3%-4% higher during the year due to this. I would guess, but I do not think in the long run we will continue to see this, and hopefully some of this will revert back over time also. This is how kind of precise I can be on this for the time being.
Thank you, Espen. I see we don't have other questions going forward. If anything comes later on, we can answer it by email to the people who have sent us the question. That was it from the Q&A side.
Let me just say, Espen, Georgiana, thank you very much. It's been a privilege to be part of this team together with you. Thank you all TOMRA employees. I'm really feeling privileged with the support you have given me. Thank you.
Thank you, Stefan.
Thank you.