MOHU: 15 million daily record in redemptions

The most popular redemption method remains a voucher that can be purchased in the store, with more than 80 percent of customers requesting this; this could have meant an additional turnover of more than 100 billion forints for the stores.

The stores are responsible for cleaning, sanitizing, emptying and operating the vending machines and their surroundings, and therefore receive a handling fee for each bottle. So far, the stores have received more than 18 billion forints in handling fees from MOHU. In June alone, larger stores earned more than 2 billion forints from the handling fee, they explained.

The announcement recalled that the automated return system is being introduced in more and more EU countries with the aim of recycling the material of beverage packaging. In the MOHU return system, the return rate is already around 80 percent every month this year, and Hungary will soon reach the 90 percent target supported by the EU.

They added that, according to estimates, in the previous “tread flat” system, the return rate was around 30 percent, and only 30-40 percent of these beverage packaging could be recycled. In the new return system, the recycling rate of bottles, cans and jars thrown into vending machines is 99.95 percent.