Analysis: More and more drinks producers in favour of deposit schemes

The fact that Coca-Cola Netherlands is making all its bottles in the Netherlands from 100% recycled plastic (rPET) as of October quickly became world news, with articles in Forbes and the Financial Times.

Coca-Cola Netherlands explicitly states in its press release that the step is thanks to the Dutch government decision to introduce a deposit on all plastic bottles on 1 July 2021: “Coca-Cola in Western Europe recognises the vital role that well-designed Deposit Return Schemes will play in its 100% rPET vision”.

The decision by Coca-Cola Netherlands made the Financial Times on 17 September. The article also states that legally mandated deposit systems will be necessary if the beverage giants want to meet their promises of recycled bottles. Also in Forbes Magazine it says: “A key enabler for the switch in the Netherlands and Norway is the rapidly expanding and effective deposit return schemes operational in both countries, guaranteeing a supply to produce rPET”.

Joe Franses, vice-president for sustainability at Coca-Cola European Partners says in an interview with the trade website ICIS: “Crucially, this announcement provides a compelling case for the role that Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) can play in the creation of local circular economies for beverage packaging. Markets with well-designed DRS such as those in Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway not only have high collection rates but also have the capacity to collect a higher grade of material with less contamination”.

The evolution that soft drink giant Coca-Cola has undergone over deposits in recent years is remarkable. In internal documents dating from before 2017, Coca-Cola's strategy was “to fight back” when proposals on deposit return schemes were put on the table. Coca-Cola spoke out in favour of deposits for the first time in 2017 in Scotland. The Guardian, Sky News and The Independent all spoke of "Coca-Cola's U-turn on deposits". The entire British beverage industry, united in the British Soft Drinks Association, supports the deposit proposal.

“The Dutch soft drink industry is very reluctant to extend deposits to small plastic bottles. But behind the scenes there is movement. Slowly but surely, resistance in the soft drinks sector to extending deposits to small plastic bottles is crumbling”, Trouw journalist Joop Bouma correctly analysed in July 2019 when Vrumona, the second largest Dutch beverage producer, also started to communicate more positively about deposits.

Spadel Netherlands has even been explicitly calling on businesses and politicians since 2019 to quickly introduce a deposit system for all beverage packaging, including small bottles and cans.

In France, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé Waters and Danone openly expressed their support for the Emmanuel Macron government's deposit proposal. Through their federations, they signed an open letter last year encouraging Minister Brune Poirson to introduce a deposit scheme. The federation representing supermarkets Aldi, Lidl and Carrefour in France also co-signed.

In Belgium, water producer Spadel has been a supporter of deposit return schemes in Belgium since 2019. After all, the group, which sells brands such as Spa and Bru, wants to be able to make all plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025. “The Fost Plus system does not guarantee that the used bottles are not mixed with other plastics”, explains Bart Peeters, Country Director of Spadel Benelux in La Libre. This is made even more difficult by the expansion of the blue bag with other plastics. “We have discovered that there could be contamination risks and we want to avoid that at all costs because the hygiene and cleanliness of the products we sell are an absolute priority”, says Peeters in the interview.

Ecover, the producer of environmentally friendly washing and cleaning products with a facility in Malle near Antwerp, is also faced with the same problem. “‘By 2020 we want to make all our packaging from recycled plastic’, says Tom Domen, innovation manager at Ecover to De Standaard. “But then there must be a sufficient and qualitative supply of used PET. This is only possible in countries with a deposit system such as Germany and Denmark. There they collect 90 percent or more of the PET bottles. In our country, a lot of waste is lost and there are still too many contaminating substances in the blue bag.”

The decision by Coca-Cola Netherlands has a bitter taste for Coca-Cola Belgium. At the bottom of the press release, Coca-Cola warns that the bottles made in Belgium will not be made of recycled plastic.

In Scotland, Scottish brewers fully support the deposit return scheme. In Latvia, all beverage producers backed the introduction of a deposit scheme last year. They did so with a Memorandum of Understanding. “A Deposit system so far is the only proven method to reach the high recovery and recycling targets set by the European Union, that requires for the Member States to

That Coca-Cola Netherlands is making all its bottles in the Netherlands from 100% recycled plastic (rPET) as of October quickly became world news, with articles in Forbes and the Financial Times.

Coca-Cola Netherlands explicitly states in its press release that the step is thanks to the Dutch government decision to introduce a deposit on all plastic bottles on 1 July 2021: “Coca-Cola in Western Europe recognises the vital role that well-designed Deposit Return Schemes will play in its 100% rPET vision”.

The decision by Coca-Cola Netherlands made the Financial Times on 17 September. The article also states that legally mandated deposit systems will be necessary if the beverage giants want to meet their promises of recycled bottles. Also in Forbes Magazine it says: “A key enabler for the switch in the Netherlands and Norway is the rapidly expanding and effective deposit return schemes operational in both countries, guaranteeing a supply to produce rPET”.

Joe Franses, vice-president for sustainability at Coca-Cola European Partners says in an interview with the trade website ICIS: “Crucially, this announcement provides a compelling case for the role that Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) can play in the creation of local circular economies for beverage packaging. Markets with well-designed DRS such as those in Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway not only have high collection rates but also have the capacity to collect a higher grade of material with less contamination”.

The evolution that soft drink giant Coca-Cola has undergone over deposits in recent years is remarkable. In internal documents dating from before 2017, Coca-Cola's strategy was “to fight back” when proposals on deposit return schemes were put on the table. Coca-Cola spoke out in favour of deposits for the first time in 2017 in Scotland. The Guardian, Sky News and The Independent all spoke of "Coca-Cola's U-turn on deposits". The entire British beverage industry, united in the British Soft Drinks Association, supports the deposit proposal.

“The Dutch soft drink industry is very reluctant to extend deposits to small plastic bottles. But behind the scenes there is movement. Slowly but surely, resistance in the soft drinks sector to extending deposits to small plastic bottles is crumbling”, Trouw journalist Joop Bouma correctly analysed in July 2019 when Vrumona, the second largest Dutch beverage producer, also started to communicate more positively about deposits.

Spadel Netherlands has even been explicitly calling on businesses and politicians since 2019 to quickly introduce a deposit system for all beverage packaging, including small bottles and cans.

In France, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestlé Waters and Danone openly expressed their support for the Emmanuel Macron government's deposit proposal. Through their federations, they signed an open letter last year encouraging Minister Brune Poirson to introduce a deposit scheme. The federation representing supermarkets Aldi, Lidl and Carrefour in France also co-signed.

In Belgium, water producer Spadel has been a supporter of deposit return schemes in Belgium since 2019. After all, the group, which sells brands such as Spa and Bru, wants to be able to make all plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025. “The Fost Plus system does not guarantee that the used bottles are not mixed with other plastics”, explains Bart Peeters, Country Director of Spadel Benelux in La Libre. This is made even more difficult by the expansion of the blue bag with other plastics. “We have discovered that there could be contamination risks and we want to avoid that at all costs because the hygiene and cleanliness of the products we sell are an absolute priority”, says Peeters in the interview.

Ecover, the producer of environmentally friendly washing and cleaning products with a facility in Malle near Antwerp, is also faced with the same problem. “‘By 2020 we want to make all our packaging from recycled plastic’, says Tom Domen, innovation manager at Ecover to De Standaard. “But then there must be a sufficient and qualitative supply of used PET. This is only possible in countries with a deposit system such as Germany and Denmark. There they collect 90 percent or more of the PET bottles. In our country, a lot of waste is lost and there are still too many contaminating substances in the blue bag.”

The decision by Coca-Cola Netherlands has a bitter taste for Coca-Cola Belgium. At the bottom of the press release, Coca-Cola warns that the bottles made in Belgium will not be made of recycled plastic.

In Scotland, Scottish brewers fully support the deposit return scheme. In Latvia, all beverage producers backed the introduction of a deposit scheme last year. They did so with a Memorandum of Understanding. “A Deposit system so far is the only proven method to reach the high recovery and recycling targets set by the European Union, that requires for the Member States to collect and recycle 77% of single-use plastic bottles with caps and lids by 2025 and 90% by 2029. Comparing to the alternative proposals, the advantage of the DRS is the monetary incentive for consumers”, declared Ināra Šure, the president of the Latvian Food Federation.

The quest for high-quality recycled PET

The big beverage companies are changing their position for a number of reasons. They find it annoying that their brand name is in the litter, and that consumers ask them pressing questions about it. They have formulated their own targets to become more sustainable. And at European level, the directive sets legal requirements on the amount of recycled PET that plastic bottles must contain. The directive is currently being transposed into national law in all Member States.

The European Single Use Plastic Directive (SUP Directive, voted in 2019) stipulates that all plastic bottles must contain at least 25% recycled content by 2025. Large quantities of collected PET are needed to meet these requirements. In addition, this PET must be of food-grade quality in order to be processed into new bottles. This means making new bottles from old bottles, bottle-to-bottle recycling in professional jargon. With a deposit scheme, this high standard is met.

Most multinationals also promised to increase the amount of recycled material in their packaging.

Coca-Cola promised to use at least 50% recycled plastics in its bottles before 2030.

The world's largest food producer, Nestlé, wants to spend 1.6 billion dollars to buy 2 million tonnes of recycled plastic between now and 2025, it declared to CNN Business. Nestlé said it would pay above market rate for the recycled material. In this way, the company wants to reduce its use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025.

Pepsi has committed to increasing the recycled content in its beverage packaging to 25% by 2025. In 2018, the base year for the current target, the company said the total volume of 'virgin' or non-recycled plastic was 2.2 million tonnes.

Danone promised that its Evian water bottles would be made from 100% recycled material, according to Bloomberg.