Ecology, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Markets and Companies

The cause of the intended change is the fact that, after the transition of Estonia to the euro, the retuning of used beverage containers has gradually decreased, and the return rate of small plastic bottles is the smallest.

Currently, the price of a bottle brought for recycling depends on the size and type, being four or eight cents. This, however, is not motivating enough for people to return the bottles and cans.

That's why Eesti Pandipakend, that manages the system of collecting used beverage containers that are subject to deposit fee, has made the Estonian Ministry of the Environment a proposal to raise the deposit and unify it at 10 cents per container.

"For us the big concern is small plastic bottles. Figures show that while 91% of large plastic bottles are returned, just 78% of small ones are retuned, i.e. that the bottle has a higher risk of staying somewhere in the nature, living environment and, therefore, it is now the high time to help it by unifying prices," said the CEO of Estonian Pandipakend Rauno Raal.

Rauno Raal estimated return of used bottles and cans is quite good in Estonia but we could aim at the level of Scandinavian countries, where the return rate is 89-94%.

In the first 10 months of this year, 86% of plastic bottles were returned, for glass bottles the rate was 83%, and in this sense we still have room for improvement.