130 civil society entities celebrate the historic step of implementing a Deposit System and demand its implementation within the two-year period set by law

On November 22, 2026, we will be able to go to stores and supermarkets throughout Spain to return plastic bottles, cans and cartons of water, juices, refreshment, energy and isotonic drinks and some alcoholic beverages such as beers and make it easier for more than 90% of all beverage containers to have high-quality recycling and become new instead of continuing to accumulate in our environment and damage our environment and our health. Thanks to the historic step taken last Friday by Teresa Ribera and the rest of the heads of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain is at the level of the more than 50 regions around the world in which the practice of 'returning the helmet' works successfully. 

The official result of the separate collection of plastic beverage bottles of less than three liters in 2023 provided by the Ministry stood at 41.3%, thus making official the failure to meet the 70% target set out in article 59 of the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils and, therefore, forcing packers and supermarkets to implement a Deposit, Return and Return System within two years.

"This decision means ending the daily abandonment of 35 million beverage containers that pollute our territory every day. It is a great legacy of Teresa Ribera that, as third vice-president of the Commission, Teresa Ribera will be able to continue working to meet the community objectives of separate collection and recycling of packaging", the Zero Waste Alliance and the 130 entities that make up the Zero Waste Alliance and the 130 entities that make up the Zero Waste Alliance have reacted in a joint statement. #LeydeResiduosYA platform.

"This analysis by the Ministry, where transparency, traceability and the quality of documentation have prevailed, finally settles the debate on the real data on the separate collection of packaging and should be the starting point for reviewing all the statistics on recycling of light packaging", the entities underline. The figure of 41.3% confirms the rigor of civil society's complaints on this matter, as it aligns with the 36% presented by Zero Waste Europe and the Zero Waste Alliance itself last May in a report by the consulting firm Eunomia, and is far from the estimate made by Ecoembes, above 70%. 

The implementation of the Deposit System will have a positive impact on society as a whole, because it is "a clean circular economy tool that will help mitigate the effects of the climate emergency and consolidate our country's commitment to a real ecological transition". 

This system of deposit and return of containers, however, leaves out the vast majority of glass containers that are put on the market, something that organizations already regretted at the time. The reusable bottles that businesses will have to offer from 2025 will be able to be returned, a very low amount that does not solve the waste of resources of the current system. "Once the Deposit System has been implemented, glass containers must be included in a generalized way to move towards the reuse and prevention of waste," demand the social organizations. 

For the Zero Waste Alliance and the #LeydeResiduosYA platform, from now on, the priority of the Ministry, led since this week by Sara Aagesen, has to be set on meeting the deadlines set. "It must be ensured that we can return cans, bottles and cartons to shops and supermarkets within two years through the Deposit and Return System already regulated in the Royal Decree of Packaging, which is accessible to all citizens and serves to guarantee compliance with the objectives of the presence of reusable packaging in commerce. This must be a reality on November 22, 2026," they stress.

What is a Deposit and Return System?

The Deposit and Return System for single-use and reusable beverage containers is based on selling water, beer, juices, soft drinks and other beverages, which are the products that we consume the most outside the home, with a small extra economic amount that, when returning cans, bottles or cartons to the store for correct reuse or recycling, the person recovers in its entirety.

This is a practice that in Spain is known as 'returning the helmet', as it was in common use until the 80s, and which works successfully in 50 countries and regions around the world that recover on average 90% of beverage containers for reuse and/or recycling in new packaging. at the same time they have solved the problem of pollution caused by cans, bottles and cartons.