🎬 Our documentary 🔄 ” Closing the Loop – Discovering the Slovak Deposit System ” **offers an in-depth look at the Slovak Deposit Return System (DRS) for single-use beverage containers which has proved to have a significant positive impact on the environment, waste management and the economy.
🎤 🔎 The coordinators of the campaign for a DRS in Italy went to Slovakia to study closely how the system works and to hear it told directly by the subjects involved: the beverage producers and the retailers who, through a not-for-profit organization, manage and finance the deposit system; without neglecting the citizens’ point of view through the eyes of an Italian-Slovak family.
💡 👍 ♻ Beverage producers are satisfied because they no longer see their branded containers in littering and because they can buy back their material at controlled prices to meet (and exceed) the recycled content targets of the SUP directive for PET bottles equal to 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
👏 The main Retail Organization SAMO and independent retailers are very satisfied with the handling fee they receive from the system administrator for each package they collect.
🗨 «Even Italy, which sees a waste of seven billion beverage containers every year (what we waste dashboard) , could reach the 95.3% collection target for PET bottles (96% for cans and 95,8% for glass) in two years with a DRS – as our study found-, saving every year approximately 110 million Euros, thanks to maximised recycling of PET bottles, from the 800 M of Plastic Tax we pay to Europe every year for the plastic packaging we are unable to recycle . The study we commissioned to Eunomia Research & Consulting last year is in fact the only one publicly accessible in Italy that quantifies the costs and benefits relating to an introduction of a DRS in Italy».
💬 « In Italy, a narrative has been diffused, which claims the possibility for the Italian EPR system to meet the 90% collection target for PET bottles stipulated in the SUP Directive; the reality, though, is there is no scheme in the world that has met such a collection level without a DRS. Every year we lose delaying a deposit system implies economic losses in our country: this includes the State which, in addition to paying for the Plastic Tax (whose amount is taken from the State Budget), is funding programs for the purchase of RVMs to be used in incentive collection systems without a deposit, whilst in DRS systems such RVMs are purchased by retailers; also, losses refer to Municipalities which, besides bear the cost of separate collection of beverage containers, also take on the costs due to removal of littered containers, and costs related to their landfilling/incineration when such containers are delivered in residual waste or in street bins».
**English subtitles are available.
Full documentary Close the Loop : 👉 https://t.ly/f7T17
Clip on some excerpts from the interviews 👉 https://t.ly/PZRB4
Trailer : 👉 https://t.ly/6O-a5
PRESS RELEASE AVAILABLE
