Since the beginning of February, a crate of empty beer bottles in Austria has cost almost four euros more in deposit than in Germany. Now there are the first indications of deposit tourism in the border region.
At the beginning of the month, Austrian brewers significantly increased the deposit on beer bottles from nine to 20 cents (we reported). The deposit for crates of beer is now also three euros twice as high as in Germany. In our neighbouring country, the aim is to increase motivation to return bottles. Background: More and more of the beer bottles in circulation are ending up in waste glass or residual waste. Now a new trend seems to be developing in the German-Austrian border region, as more and more Germans are bringing their empty beer crates to Austria.
Christian Thiel from the Bavarian brewery Schönramer, for example, told the news agency dpa: „In the first few days, the trend was catastrophic. People want to get rich.“ The Austrian Brewers' Association also confirms similar incidents and points out that retailers have the right to do so, only take back normal household quantities and only boxes that they themselves would have in their range.
Deposit increase in Germany too?
In Germany, there have been discussions about increasing the deposit for years, as the deposit is the same as in Austria, has not been increased for decades and is eight cents. However, empty glass bottles and crates have long since cost more to procure. However, brewers still fear that a deposit increase could cause problems, for example in terms of customer acceptance.
Source: t-online
