At the beginning of the year, Austria not only introduced a one-way deposit system, with a 25 cent deposit on PET bottles and beverage cans for the first time. The existing deposit on returnable glass bottles will also be significantly increased from February 2025.
This is the first time in around 40 years that the deposit amount has changed from nine cents to 20 cents per glass bottle, The Association of Austrian Breweries announced. The new regulation mainly affects the classic 0.5-litre beer bottle, which accounts for 90 percent of glass bottles. The breweries hope that the higher deposit will significantly increase the return of empty glass bottles. The return mentality has apparently declined significantly in recent years and many glass bottles ended up as waste in the bottle bank.
„This will significantly increase the motivation to return empty bottles to retailers, especially now that other containers have also recently become subject to a deposit.“
Karl Schwarz, Chairman of the Association of Austrian Breweries
Reusable glass bottles can be refilled up to 40 times and therefore have an outstanding eco-balance for regional drinks such as beer. „The low deposit apparently led to more and more people disposing of the bottles and thus preventing them from being recycled,“ says Karl Schwarz. This is bad for the environment and is caused by the missing bottles, which in turn have to be replaced, damage running into millions for the breweries and other beverage producers.
Deposit increase prepared for two years
The following are affected by the deposit increase all those bottles that are currently deposited in the return machines at nine cents: These include the classic 0.5-litre beer bottles, but also white glass bottles with screw caps and many 0.33-litre bottles. As 90 per cent of these bottles are beer bottles, the Association of Breweries took the lead in initiating, negotiating and implementing the increase. The adjustment was preceded by two years of preparation, because - unlike the deposit for non-returnable containers - the returnable deposit a „private law agreement“ between buyers, distributors and returners. „The commercial practice is not based on any legal basis; the Austrian reusable system for drinks bottles and crates has been working perfectly for decades and without a state-imposed legal framework,“ says Schwarz.
However, the deposit increase has also been criticised and fuels the fear of deposit tourism. From this week, a crate of beer in Austria will cost seven euros deposit (four euros for the 20 glass bottles and three euros for the crate). In neighbouring Bavaria, a deposit of just 3.10 euros will be charged for the same container.
Source: Association of Austrian Breweries
