Girls looking at bottles in store

Deposit return scheme

Deposit return schemes (DRSs) for beverage container recycling have been shown to have significant benefits for the planet, communities and the economy. DRS is also known as a container deposit scheme, bottle bill, bottle return scheme, or beverage container return scheme. But what exactly is a deposit return scheme, how does it work, and how effective can it be?

Retailer involvement in deposit return schemes

Economic impact of deposit return schemes

I wish my taxation was more like deposit [return systems], because then I would get a full refund of my tax return. But, they’re not. You pay the deposit and you get it all back, as long as you participate.

Clarissa Morawski Managing Director, Reloop

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Deposit return scheme best practices


Learn the success factors of the world's highest-performing deposit return systems for recycling beverage containers.

Download TOMRA’s white paper discussing what effective deposit return systems deliver, the key elements high-performing deposit systems share, and dozens of case studies on real-world implementation of deposit return policy.
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1 “Understanding the effects of marine debris on wildlife,” CSIRO. 2014.
2Calculated based on collection rates from Global Data, deposit system Central System Administrators, and “PET Market in Europe: State of Play,” Eunomia. 2020. Data available upon request.
3 “Beverage Market Data Analysis 2015,” Container Recycling Institute. 2017.
4 BottleBill.org 2019.
“The Journey to 100% rPET Bottles,” Beverage Daily. 2020.
6 “RecyclingMarkets.net lists baled PET market value data from deposit streams as 58% to 93% higher than baled PET from non-deposit streams. This refers to deposit vs non-deposit PET in the northeast USA. January-June 2020. Susan Collins of the Container Recycling Institute commented that this is higher than normal due to COVID-19 implications and deposit PET is typically 40% higher.
7 “PET Market in Europe: State of Play,” Eunomia. 2020. Data available upon request.
8 “Global Deposit Book 2020,” Reloop. 2020.
9 “2019 Annual Report,” Recycle BC. 2020.
10 "Fact Sheet: Economic Savings for Municipalities,” Reloop. 2020.
11 “Employment and Impact of Container Deposits – New York,” Eunomia. 2019.