The Danish deposit and return system

Based on initiatives taken by the brewing and retail trades in partnership with the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Denmark has pioneered the handling of one-way packaging with a unified system. This covers all the processes involved in collecting bottles and cans, and refunding deposits. Many countries thus look to Denmark for inspiration and ideas in this field.

The advantage of the system is that one organisation covering all the breweries and retail outlets collects, recycles and refunds the deposits paid on one-way packaging – on a non-profit basis.

Simple and user-friendly

The system is designed to be as simple, cheap and user-friendly as possible.

• Easy for consumers to return empty bottles and cans, and receive refunds.  
  
• Opportunity to create better working environment in bottle-handling departments for stores and other locations. 
  
• One-way packaging collected in compliance with legal requirements for importers and producers. 
  
• Efficient, rational and nationwide collection system to keep costs to the minimum.

The consumer and the environment benefit

From a consumer point of view, the greatest and most obvious advantage of the system is that all products – irrespective of where they originate in the world – can be marketed in Denmark. Consequently, since the system was introduced, the number of different beers and soft drinks supplied in one-way packaging has also grown and numbers more than 15,000 products.

Without the current system, consumers of specially imported beers would otherwise only be refunded their deposits at the original point of sale. This is because individual importers do not have the possibility to establish a nationwide collection system. To a large extent, this would mean that people would throw their empty bottles and cans into the dustbin, with greater adverse consequences for the environment.

An additional environmental benefit of the current system is that consumers often go out of their way to pick up carelessly discarded bottles and cans – knowing that they will be rewarded with a refund on returning the packaging to a registered sales location. In other words, the deposit and return system incentivises the general public to keep Denmark tidy.

Based on the logic that all packaging must cover its collection and recycling costs, breweries and importers of beer and soft drinks contribute pro rata to the system’s operating overheads.