Deposit Return Schemes: An Efficient Way to Combine a Tax Excise System with the Circular Economy

This article presents an integrated approach for ensuring producers of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) correctly report the volumes they put on the market (POM) and pay the appropriate SSB taxes and recycling fees.

Beverage containers such as PET/glass bottles and aluminium cans provide one of the most effective recycling opportunities for countries to reach circular economy and climate change targets. This they do with the help of deposit return schemes (DRS) which motivate consumers to return their empty beverage containers.

Effective deposit return schemes result in a collection rate of over 95% of beverage containers. Deposit programmes are being rapidly implemented across the globe. As of 2023, 15 European countries, including Germany and Denmark, several US states, Australia and Canada, and other countries are running beverage bottle/can deposit schemes. In addition, 10 more European countries, plus South Korea and Singapore are working on legislative actions to start similar programmes. And Türkiye will launch one of the largest volume deposit schemes in the world by Q1 2025.