357 million bottles away – what is really behind it?
© CANVA/APA/AFP
Since January 2025, the disposable deposit on plastic bottles and aluminum boxes has been in effect in Austria. After half a year, the central settlement site is taking a positive balance – 357 million containers have already been returned.
As of January 1, 2025, the deposit system for PET bypass and aluminum boxes was introduced in Austria. 25 cents of deposit are inserted on each container with a pawn logo. The newly founded Recycling-Pfand Österreich GmbH, the central resolution agency, is satisfied with the previous development.
High response rate thanks to the machine density
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According to the management – Monika Fiala and Simon Parth – over 357 million deposit containers were returned in the first half of the year. Seven to nine million doses or bottles end up in the return machines every day – 98 percent of the returns take place via trade. “With around 6200 devices, we have the second highest machine density in Europe,” said Fiala.
About 48 percent of the returned containers are plastic bottles, 52 percent aluminum boxes. According to the Fiala and Parth, the desired return rate of 80 percent by the end of the year is “achieved with a high level of security”.
Environment, resources, acceptance
According to a current survey, 75 percent of Austrians support the deposit system. 80 percent feel well informed. The system not only ensures less littering, but also helps to recycle raw materials in Germany. Many thousand tons of aluminum and PET did not have to be imported.
A big difference to the yellow sack: the deposit containers are only processed into equivalent products – bottle to bottle, can to can.
Some cities – including Linz, Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Innsbruck – have attached so -called “pawn rings” to dunging. In this way, needy bottles and cans can collect without having to dig in waste containers. Vienna is still hesitant here.
Financing and outlook
Not all consumers bring their containers back – this “deposit slip” amounts to around 60 million euros a year with a 90 percent return rate. According to the prescription, the money flows into the financing of the system – including in dealer compensation (three cent per contest) and logistics.
At the end of 2025, a new sorting system in Müllendorf (Burgenland) is also to go into operation. In the long term, it should replace one of the currently three systems.
