Slovakia, a small country of the EU will launch a system for backing up plastic bottles and cans from January. It wants to reduce waste and recycle used beverage packaging more. Over 2,000 collection points were registered for the project. Among them are shops that will allow the refundable deposit to be used for charity.
The deposit of 15 euro cents (less than four crowns) will apply to plastic and metal beverage containers with a volume of 0.1 to three liters, which will be marked with a letter. Milk bottles, syrups, and spirits, among others, have an exception from backup.
Slovakia considers plastic bottles and cans to be an environmental problem because they end up where they don’t, in nature and in our rivers. It is a consequence of the way we all treat packaging waste as consumers. The backup system brings a solution in the form of increasing the motivation to return plastic bottles and cans back to the store.
The consumer will receive a refundable deposit after returning the plastic bottles and cans, for example through vending machines or directly in smaller stores. One of the retail chains will allow customers to donate this money to a non-profit organization that maps illegal landfills or organizes the cleaning of public spaces.
According to earlier information, a billion PET bottles enter the Slovak market every year, of which two-fifths end up in landfills. According to the Ministry of the Environment, Slovakia wants to collect 90 percent of plastic bottles and cans through backup. Dozens of European countries have previously introduced a beverage packaging backup system.
The operator of the advanced system in Slovakia became a non-profit organization, which was founded by an association of producers of soft drinks, beer and trade unions. Some companies have already announced that they will give consumers canvas bags or aids to make it easier to transport empty plastic bottles.
