In July 2019, the European Federation of Bottled Waters, the forerunner organisation of Natural Mineral Waters Europe (NMWE), called for a step-change in the performance of collection and sorting systems for beverage containers to obtain the necessary quantity of high-quality recycled PET in the EU. A well-designed Deposit Refund System is suitable for that purpose.
Natural mineral and spring water producers believe that high collection of beverage PET bottles is a first, but very important, step towards higher use of recycled PET. However, to include recycled PET in their packaging, natural mineral and spring water producers require access to a consistent supply of high-quality, food contact, recycled material.
Therefore, separate collection is essential. This can occur either via existing well-performing curbside collection or via the introduction of Deposit Refund Systems. Deposit Refund System has the benefit of yielding very high return rates in a separate “clean” stream for PET beverage bottles.
In order to promote and facilitate the introduction of Deposit Refund Systems across Europe, the natural mineral and spring water industry defined key success factor for a well-designed DRS system.
