Does returnable drink packaging strengthen the drive for sustainability?

Environmentally conscious consumption habits

In a representative survey with 520 participants, we have investigated how environmentally conscious Hungarians think they are, what sustainability-related habits they have and what they think about the new drink container return system. The results reveal that 79% of respondents are interested in environmental protection and 6% said they are actively making changes in their lives to live more environmentally consciously. Related to the environment, 3 main everyday consumption and sustainability habits stood out, practiced by more than half of the respondents. Nearly 60% take care to avoid food ending up in the waste bin, the same proportion throw empty bottles in the bottle bin, and 56% take hazardous waste to designated collection points. Three environmentally conscious behaviours prevail in the category of sustainability in the home, too. 66% make efforts to avoid wasting electricity, 63% select waste collectively, and 54% try not to waste water.

Experiences with the deposit return system

The deposit return system for drink containers was introduced in Hungary in January 2024, adding a HUF 50 return fee to the price of drinks, which is refunded to the customer when returning empty bottles and cans, in the form of cash or redeemable coupons. 95% of respondents have heard about the new system and nearly 70% have come across it in shops. Only 5% haven’t heard of the new scheme. 55% think it is a very good idea and believe that fewer recyclable bottles and cans will end up in the trash, but 14% opine it isn’t a good way to reduce the amount of rubbish. 56% of respondents are sure to return drink containers, a third of shoppers will return most of them, and 14% don’t want to bother with return or prefer not to buy such products.

79% of respondents plan to collect a large number of bottles at home and return them all at once. At the time of our data collection, 41% of shoppers already tried the reverse vending machines, and 61% of them said they were very easy to use, while 35% said that they were difficult to use at first but it was easy to learn. Overall, people find the deposit return scheme useful and feedback suggests that it will be popular. The deposit fee is expected to motivate people who aren’t committed to protecting the environment otherwise. Households need to develop storage and transport practices, while on the business side there is a need to ensure the smooth operation of the system and to increase the number of return vending machines. //