Dark green is implemented, light green is project
Source: https://laconsignemaintenant.blogspot.com/p/la-consigne-en-europe.html (French)
I think, this is the first time I’m reading the French country names for most of these. They are great. 🙃
The article is from 2021, did any of those projects actually get implemented?
In the Netherlands we currently do all cans, all plastic bottles, and most small glass bottles.
Well done
Ireland implemented this year for plastic bottles.
Thanks for the info! How is the general reaction do it? Is there an impact on the litter level?
I think it’s too early to say if there’s an impact on litter yet. It’s only been a few months. I do volunteer litter picking in my area and plastic bottles are part of the waste but mostly it’s other stuff, so I don’t think it will make a big difference.
Most people don’t like the implementation. The machines are always breaking and it is painfully slow since you have to do it one at a time.
I like the idea, but the implementation has a long way to go.
We have kerbside pickup so now it’s just made it either more expensive or more hassle… I hate it. People who were already recycling will be the ones who bother to keep another bin for just these returnables and then go to the shop to put each one in the machine individually, then get a receipt, then go to the shop to redeem it for money. It’s a huge hassle and the machines are a waste of energy and ugly.
In Germany we’ve had this all my waking life. I personally don’t find it a hassle at all. The bottles don’t go bad when they await my next trip to the shops. It is so natural for me to return them and get my depos back.
Whenever I’m out of the country I feel so bad about throwing bottles into the rubbish. They must return to their natural habitat!
The thing is, we have kerbside pickup so the bottles weren’t going in the trash before. It’s just that now I have a lot of extra steps and need to keep yet another separate container for plastic.
I know it has been implemented in Slovakia in the meantime.
Austria starts next year
We just started implementing our own solution with a deposit system here in Hungary and it seems to be going just alright for now. We also had something like this for quite some time but now there seems to be a bigger push on the government’s side, so that’s something nice to see for a change.
I think this is inaccurate. Belgium is shown as not having it implemented but that’s wrong, almost all GLASS bottles (beer, water, soda) are sold with a deposit fee.
It’s cans and plastic bottles, I will edit the title.
Glass bottles have a deposit fee in Belgium indeed
I always wonder why there are no pan-Europe deposit systems in place, or at least some sort of recognition across the countries.
Imagine you travel from one country to another, you grab a bottle of water for your trip, and then you are supposed to return that bottle only in the country where you originally got it.
Or you not only miss your deposit—sometimes you can’t even throw plastic bottles to recycling collection points just because the plastic bottle you got doesn’t have their local sign/icon printed on the packaging.
Well, in Germany there aren’t even pan-country deposit systems in place. You often have to find a store where you can buy that bottle for them to accept it.
Sounds like it is designed to make it difficult and cumbersome… which is the opposite of what you’d hope for a wide adoption of practice.
All the bottles/cans we Norwegians buy in Sweden go in the trash.
It’s a large amount of cans. When travelling back home from Sweden, a Norwegian is likely to bring a few 24-packs… In some households it’s consumed more Swedish soda and beer than Norwegian.
In Poland pfand begins in January 2025.
In switzerland we incentivise it the opposite way.
You are taxed based on how much garbage you produce - what you recycled.
So people lose money if they don’t recycle cans/pet bottles.
But that only factors in what you do at home, no?
Interesting alternative
Portugal has had some level of this since I was born for beer beer bottles, but it’s very limited. Recently there have been even some machines popping up.
