It’s getting serious: Anyone who buys drinks will pay a 25 cent deposit per plastic bottle or can from January 1st. Shops are obliged to take back empty containers with the Austrian deposit logo. This is intended to protect the environment, as disposable plastic bottles often end up in nature. In Austria, around 70 percent is currently collected and recycled after use. The collection rate should be increased to 90 percent by 2027.
Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) speaks of a “new age of deposits”. The preparations for this have been completed in all areas: supermarkets have been equipped with new return machines. In sales outlets without machines – such as bakeries, sausage stands or kiosks – the return is carried out by one person. These stores only have to take back containers that they offer – and only as much as they normally sell to one person.
Transition phase until the end of 2025
In order for consumers to receive the deposit back, the bottles or cans must be uncrushed and the label on the packaging must be completely legible. In addition to tetra packs, milk drinks (for hygiene reasons), syrups (because they are not intended for immediate consumption), glass or metal beverage bottles with plastic caps as well as bottles for complementary foods and liquid foods that are intended for medical purposes are exempt from the deposit system.
Containers that have already been produced and do not yet have a deposit logo may be sold until the end of 2025. This remaining stock remains deposit-free and can still be disposed of in the yellow bag during the one-year transition phase. The new, deposited containers, on the other hand, no longer have any place in them. The “yellow formula” will apply in the future. It reads: lightweight packaging plus metal packaging minus deposit. The (blue) metal bin will no longer be available in the new year.
A system that doesn’t just have friends
PET bottles and cans should not become more expensive due to the deposit. “The system is self-financing,” says Environment Minister Gewessler. On the one hand, the financing is provided by a producer fee, which has to be paid now. On the other hand, 25 cents remain in the system for every deposit bottle that is not returned – the so-called “deposit slip”.
For the waste material collection centers (ASZ), the change means economic losses because large amounts of waste are no longer collected. Roland Wohlmuth, chairman of the state waste association, expects around one million euros in Upper Austria to be missed by the ASZ.
Snack stands and tobacconists were also less than enthusiastic about the new deposit system. They recently complained about not enough storage space to collect the empty beverage deposits. A criticism that Gewessler cannot understand. In Germany, for example, deposit returns work “excellently” in small return points and shops that are still open late at night, as well as in tobacconists. According to the ministry, there are relief measures for small shops without vending machines. You can read more about this in the report on the left.
Source: Nachrichten
