Austria starts a deposit: 25 cents for every beverage can!

Austria starts a deposit: 25 cents for every beverage can!

From January 1, 2025, a uniform pledge system for disposable drinks packaging will be introduced in Austria. With every purchase of drinks in disposable packaging, such as PET bottles and aluminum doses with a volume between 0.1 and 3 liters, customers have to pay a deposit of 0.25 euros. This deposit is reimbursed when the empty packaging is brought back. The Ministry of Climate Protection has already completed the preparations for the introduction of the system, and new return machines are installed in supermarkets, as orf.at reported. Smaller shops that have no machines receive support to implement this regulation.

Details on the Pfand Ordinance

This deposit system applies to different types of drinks, but there are exceptions, including milk and milk mix drinks. Business owners, such as Konrad Pfandl from the Pfandl Fleischerei in St. Veit an der Glan, have expressed a positive statement and emphasized that the process is easy to use. In addition, sellers must ensure that the packaging is correctly marked, so that consumers can clearly see which products are subject to deposits, explained the wko .

For packaging that has already been produced, there is a transition period until the end of 2025, so that they can continue to be sold, even if they are not marked with the new deposit symbol. A steep learning curve for many, but the goal is clear: Austria's recycling rate is to be increased from 70 to 90 percent to relieve the environment and reduce garbage in nature. Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) emphasized that every bottle or can brought back were a step in the fight against pollution.