Plastic bottles with juice finally welcome in the deposit return system

Environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk is very pleased with this development. “This means that a deposit will be placed on more plastic bottles, which counters the waste of raw materials and environmental pollution. We have been urging this for years. We are glad that this logical step has been taken today,” according to Recycling Netwerk.

The 2020 deposit decision stated that deposits should only be levied on plastic bottles containing soft drinks and water, which exempted juice bottles from the legal obligation. Recycling Netwerk protested against this from the very beginning. Juice bottles together constitute a large market share. Furthermore, countries like Denmark and Finland demonstrate that juice can easily be integrated into a deposit system. BNNVARA's consumer programme Kassa dedicated several broadcasts to it, as this exception also led to confusion and misunderstanding among consumers.

Last November, Recycling Netwerk Benelux filed an enforcement request with the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT), because there were many beverages on the shelves without a deposit that appeared to be juice, but actually fell under the legal definition of soft drinks: a beverage containing juice, with added water and sugar. In January, the ILT agreed with us. With this ruling, beverage producers and supermarkets also had to introduce a deposit on all juices to which water and sugar had been added. This is a more correct application of the deposit law, and practically means that a deposit will be placed on more plastic bottles.

With this ruling, we already pointed out that the exception for juices made no sense at all anymore. Moreover, for the sake of the environment, it is necessary for the Netherlands to move towards a deposit on all beverage containers, without distinctions or exceptions based on the contents of the packaging. “The packaging pollutes the environment, regardless of what drink was inside. So just remove that unfounded exception for juice,” we concluded back then.

This was also requested from the political arena, most recently by GroenLinks, which submitted a motion to remove the exception for juices from the legislation. The State Secretary advised against this motion, referring to the evaluation of the deposit system in 2024.

Juice producer Innocent campaigned from the start of the deposit on small plastic bottles to be allowed into the deposit system. They were told by the State Secretary that they could join voluntarily, but had to wait for permission from Statiegeld Nederland.

All the attention on the subject and the broad societal pressure has clearly borne fruit after all. Today, Raymond Gianotten, director at Statiegeld Nederland, announced that juice producers can now voluntarily participate in the system. Supermarket Albert Heijn is the first supermarket to react, stating that it will soon also introduce deposits on all its plastic juice bottles to keep things clear for the consumer.

Recycling Netwerk is pleased with this logical step in the deposit dossier and thanks all actors who helped make this happen.