As of Friday, beverage containers will be worth 10 cents if placed empty in automatic machines, a system that the government sees as one of Portugal’s biggest environmental projects.
The system is called SDR and has been announced for a long time to start on April 10th. The machines, across the country, will receive single-use plastic and metal bottles, up to three liters, and print the respective refund.
However, those responsible for the system warn that there may be bottles and cans that the machines do not accept, because they do not yet have the symbol, a horseshoe-shaped arrow and the word Volta. In this case, the consumer must place them in the respective recycling bin.
The Deposit and Refund System (SDR), which in Portugal is called Volta, has been planned since 2017 and a 2018 law established that it would be operational on January 1, 2022, but it will only start now, with an investment of 150 million euros and which should create 1,500 jobs.
According to experiences in other countries, SDR Portugal, the managing entity of Volta, says that the system will allow the collection of many more single-use beverage packaging, aiming for rates of 90% by 2029.
The greater expected recovery, reinforcing the circular economy and increasing recycling rates, is due to the incentive to reimburse 10 cents per package (regardless of size).
All of this makes the SDR “perhaps one of the biggest environmental projects that Portugal is implementing”, as the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, said last month when presenting the system.
The minister recalled that the waste sector is one of the “most difficult” in terms of European goals and repeated that the Portuguese are not reducing or separating enough.
The latest report from the Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority (ERSAR), released in March and referring to 2024, points to the continuation of low waste collection rates and recycling rates.
A scenario that can now be reversed in single-use beverage packaging.
From Friday onwards, as long as they have the Volta symbol, are intact, without liquids, with a lid and with the barcode, they are accepted in any of the 2,500 machines spread across the country, more than 8,000 manual collection points and 48 kiosks for large quantity deliveries. They will be, for example, close to supermarkets. The machine crushes the packaging and returns 10 cents.
Until August 10th, in a transition phase, it is natural that the same products will be on sale, but some without the logo and therefore are not accepted by the machines. But when purchasing, the consumer also did not pay the 10 cents deposit.
The president of the board of directors of SDR Portugal, Leonardo Mathias, said that the project’s target is the 2.1 billion units of plastic and aluminum bottles used each year.
With it, there can be less trash on the streets, recycling can be better, landfill disposal can decrease, and the promotion of the circular economy also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
These are the great contributions of consumers, the 10.7 million inhabitants and 29 million tourists per year, who do not actually earn money in the process, as the 10 cents are incorporated into the price of the drink, a deposit, returned in the form of a “voucher”, which can be converted into cash or discounts in stores, among other forms.
The machines accept one package at a time and at the end present refund options.
According to the management entity, 90% of the soft drink, water and beer industry and 80% of retailers joined the Volta.
The European Union wants single-use plastic bottles to contain at least 65% recycled material by 2040.
The SDR system is already implemented in several European countries, such as Germany, Austria or Denmark, and annually collects more than 35 billion packages, involving around 357 million inhabitants.
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