Eva Johnson
July 22, 2024
PET Bottles Recycling
From July 1st, only returnable bottles and jars will be available in Hungary. The measure aims for Hungary to achieve a 90 percent PET bottle return rate within three years.
The essence of the system is that for all so-called one-way beverage products put on the market after the 1st of January 2024, the customer pays a uniform HUF 50 per bottle redemption fee, which is refunded after the bottle is returned. In the case of refillable bottles, the redemption fee amount is set by the bottler and indicated in the logo. This is a very effective environmental method, as it motivates the consumer to return the bottle, which can be recycled.
What to look out for?
Bottles put on the market after January 1, 2024, bearing the redemption logo and a new barcode different from the one on the previous packaging, can be returned.
Returns will be compulsory in all supermarkets larger than 400 square metres at REpont vending machines, but any smaller supermarket can join the scheme voluntarily. In the participating shops, bottles will be placed in a machine that checks whether they are returnable, correctly labelled, and not damaged.
During the mandatory return, you can only return bottles and cylinders with the unique MOHU mark on the packaging. This mark is the code scanned by vending machines in various shops across the country.
Non-returnable bottles must not be thrown into the vending machines, as they can cause malfunctions and damage. Bottles smaller than 0.1 litres and larger than 3 litres cannot be returned.
Do not squeeze the bottle! The vending machines identify the packaging’s shape, weight and barcode and return the bottles based on this information. Only intact, uncompressed, legible barcodes are returned.
You will have several options to get your bottle deposit refunded in the future:
- Voucher: The vending machine prints the value of the returned bottles on a voucher, which can be redeemed for cash or in the respective shop or chain of shops.
- Transfer to a bank account: using the barcode scanner built into the vending machine, the registered customer will be able to identify himself in the soon-to-be-available application with his electronic customer code, after which the redemption fee will be automatically credited to the bank account recorded in his customer profile.
- Donation to charity: you can also donate the redemption fee to charity.
Useful Information
The automatic system recognises products by their barcode, and although we can find the deposit fee on them, they may not be returned if they are not yet in the database. In fact, whether we receive money for the bottles depends on whether the product code has been entered in the shop’s REpont machine database.
Link to REpont Map search: https://repont.hu/hu/terkepes-kereso
Source: Future of Debrecen (In Hungarian)
