VOLTA recycling system hailed major success

The VOLTA recycling system taking Portugal by storm – and adding 10 cents to almost every single drinks bottle and can – is being hailed as a major success today.

Only introduced in April, it has reached the point where 10 million cans and single-use plastic bottles have already been deposited in the growing battalion of machines being sited throughout the country.

SDR Portugal – the non-profit association responsible for implementing and managing the system – stresses that this is only the beginning: the system is still in its transition phase, with “progressive introduction into the market of receptacles carrying the ‘Volta’ symbol.”

What this means is that, initially, the system was marketed as taking water bottles. This has now morphed to all single-use plastic bottles (for all kinds of drinks), as well as cans – again of a variety of drinks, from soft to alcoholic.

As supermarkets will tell you, “there are almost no drinks now that aren’t ‘Volta’” – unless people buy drinks in containers of 3-litres or more.

The idea is to continue expanding the network of machines, and to continue funding the exercise by charging everyone an extra 10 cents on the purchase price of the drink in question, which is ‘refunded’ with a voucher on successful recycling.

To successfully recycle a ‘Volta’ container, it needs to be in perfect condition, with the bar code legible. The machines also have to be working (some have been seen with ‘out of order’ signs, and ‘apologies for the inconvenience caused’).

But for SDR, today’s message is “June 10, 10 million inhabitants, 10 million single-use drinks receptacles recycled”.

“The figure reached — 10,006,067 packages returned in just two months — reflects the significant participation of consumers and the commitment of participatging entities to establishing a stable, operational, and efficient national collection network,” says the non-profit in a statement.

Leonardo Mathias, SDR’s president, says the number of containers ‘returned’ “corresponds, on average, to one package returned by each citizen, but represents much more than a statistical milestone. We are witnessing the beginning of a change in behavior and are confident that Portugal will follow the path of Europe’s most successful deposit return systems, contributing to the achievement of the demanding European targets for circularity and sustainability,” he explains.

Volta’s operational data released today indicates that returns occur more frequently on weekends, especially on Sundays, which SDR Portugal says demonstrates “the progressive adaptation of the system to the population’s routines.”

Until August 9, the system will remain in its transition period, during which packages with and without the ‘Volta’ symbol coexist on the market, as available products are gradually replaced by new packages integrated into the system.

Today’s update on progress reminds people that any package without the Volta symbol should still be disposed of in the ‘appropriate recycling bins’. But, everything definitely looks as though Portugal is on track to comply with European targets for a 90% selective recycling of single-use drinks containers by 2029…

Source material: noticiasaominuto