Nationwide return system for drinks packaging is ready to launch

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2023/12-01

Since 2019 the beverage and retail consultants of IFUA Horváth have been actively involved in the process of building the new system. On 10 October 2023, at their second webinar on the subject, they presented the most important changes that will occur probably from January. Bálint Varga, head of retail and consumer goods and competence centre at IFUA Horváth, and the company’s managing consultant Enikő Bárdos were the speakers at the online seminar.

Single-use packaging also becomes returnable

Bálint Varga
F&B and retail expert
IFUA Horváth

In Hungary Mol’s subsidiary, Mol Hulladékgazdálkodási Zrt. (MOHU) will be the concession holder doing the waste management for the next 35 years, including overall system management, and waste collection and pre-treatment activities – with the involvement of subcontractors if necessary. Drinks packaging can be reusable or single-use. Reusable packaging has always been returnable, but single-use beverage containers will only be subject to a return fee from 1 January 2024. According to the EU recovery targets, it will be possible to achieve recovery rates of over 90% in the aluminium, PET and glass categories in the coming years.

The new systems

Enikő Bárdos
lead consultant
IFUA Horváth

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system is being introduced to create a circular economy model. In line with EU directives, the basic principle of EPR is that the first domestic producer (who can be either a manufacturer or an importer) is responsible for organising the collection and transfer for recovery at the end of the life-cycle of products. The return system for single-use beverage packaging is called Deposit Return System (DRS). Every year 3-3.5 billion DRS beverage containers are put on the market in Hungary, weighing nearly 160,000 tonnes. Milk-based products are exempt from the return system that works with 100ml-3l drink containers, as their collection and pre-treatment isn’t yet feasible due to their high protein content.

For FMCG stores bigger than 400m² it will be mandatory to set up return points, and the return vending machines (RVM) are provided by MOHU. As for shops smaller than this, joining the system is voluntary, with a RVM for high turnover shops and manual return service for low turnover stores. In municipalities with more than 1,000 inhabitants, the establishment of a drinks packaging return point is compulsory if there is no obligatory or voluntary commercial unit. The details of the HoReCa and e-commerce collection are still to be worked out, but it seems that HoReCa units can return empty beverage containers to any collection point.

Returnable products will mostly include single-use products

Costs of joining the system

Under the DRS scheme, manufacturers pay two main types of fees to MOHU, the joining fee and the service fee, and they transfer the deposit return surcharge paid by customers – this sum is HUF 50 as per the draft regulation. The system joining fee (HUF/unit of product put on the market) is paid by those who first put the product on the market to MOHU. This fee will be differentiated by type of packaging material and paid quarterly for 5 years. The service fee (HUF/unit of product put on the market) will also be paid by those who first put the product on the market. This system will be uniform at the beginning, with plans to differentiate by product type in later years; this sum will also be paid quarterly.