Considered by the Minister of the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho, to be one of Portugal's largest environmental projects, the system covers single-use plastic or metal beverage containers of up to three litres, with the 10-cent fee paid at the time of purchase refunded through machines installed throughout the country.

Unaccepted packaging

The DRS officials warn that in this first phase, there will still be beverage containers, such as water bottles, that are accepted in the machines, and others identical that are not, simply because they do not yet have the 'Volta' brand printed on them. They explain that containers that do not yet have the deposit system symbol will also not have the 10-cent fee applied.

Based on experiences in other countries, SDR Portugal, the managing entity of 'Volta', says the system will allow the collection of many more single-use beverage containers, aiming for 90% in 2029.

Guide to delivering the right packaging

From 10 April, as long as they have the 'Volta' symbol, are intact, without liquids, with a cap and with the barcode, the packaging will be accepted in any of the 2,500 machines spread across the country (and 48 kiosks for larger quantities), next to supermarkets, for example. The machine crushes the packaging and issues a 10-cent refund in the form of a "voucher" convertible into cash.

SDR Portugal provides detailed explanations about the system on its official page.

The SDR system is already implemented in several European countries, including Germany, Austria, and Denmark, and collects more than 35 billion packages annually, involving approximately 357 million inhabitants.