From January next year, Slovakia will start backing up plastic PET bottles and cans. Their deposit price is 15 cents. They must return to the shops undamaged. The system is already operating successfully in ten European countries. Plastics processors also see benefits.

At present, more than a billion packages come to the market in Slovakia, of which approximately 60 percent are collected. Backup of beverage packaging has a more efficient way to recycle.

The European Commission wants to make mandatory collection of plastic bottles and cans at 90 percent by 2025 in the Member States. In our country, the law on backup will start on January 1, 2022.

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Plastic bottles with a symbol will gradually be added to the counters “FROM” how “backed up”, for which Slovaks pay when buying 15 cents. For the same amount, they return them to the so-called backup machines.

“The bottles must be carried, uncurled, undamaged and the label must be in place so that the machine can recognize the shape of the print,” Marek Koštrna, Marketing Manager of Terno and Kraj Retail Stores, explained.

On behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, the administration, financing and the course of the backup process are in charge of the administration of the backup system, which is to ensure more than 2,000 collection points.

“There are about 1,000 food collection points that they take in compulsorily and then 1,000 smaller stores that have the opportunity to join the back-up system voluntarily,” said Lucia Morvai, a representative of the Reserve Administrator.