Lisbon, April 9, 2026 (Lusa) - Environmental association Zero has welcomed the nationwide launch of the Deposit Return Scheme on Friday but expressed deep regret over the exclusion of glass and calls for greater reuse.
In a Lusa news agency podcast, which will be available from 08:00 a.m. on Friday, Zero CEO Susana Fonseca described the system as an important step that the association had advocated for since it was first debated in parliament in 2018, saying that although the system was originally intended to launch in 2022, Zero had continued fighting for its implementation.
The Deposit Return Scheme allows consumers to return single-use plastic and metal beverage containers to designated machines, which refund the €0.10 surcharge paid at the time of purchase.
The scheme has already been successfully implemented in other countries, receiving praise from environmental organisations, and there was no reason to expect a different outcome in Portugal, she said.
While acknowledging that the initial phase might be confusing, she said that the process is easy to learn and identical to deposit schemes that already exist (at festivals, for example), saying that “it has a very large collection capacity”.
However, she highlighted significant shortcomings, expressing regret that the Deposit Return Scheme applies only to disposable products rather than reusable ones, and lamenting the exclusion of glass, noting that its inclusion was originally mandated by the 2018 law.
“That is one of the system’s major flaws. Zero and other environmental organisations in Portugal fought hard to keep glass included, which was what was in the 2018 law,” she said.
According to her, glass was one of the most logical materials to collect, particularly as Portugal was currently failing to meet its recycling targets for 100% recyclable and durable material, and the country imports this raw material.
"We had every reason to include glass in the system. Unfortunately, a political decision was made not to follow through on what had been approved. The government decided to amend the law passed by the parliament, and that decision has been detrimental to the country”, she said.
With glass in the Deposit Return Scheme, Portugal would have met its recycling targets for that material, as beverage packaging is mostly glass (beer, for example), she said, lamenting that under the current rules, the country was set to fall short of those goals.
Furthermore, she said the system had been designed around disposable items despite mandatory targets for reuse, adding that having to develop a separate system later to meet those targets was a mistake.
Highlighting Portugal’s reliance on imported raw materials, Fonseca said the economic resilience principle was not being effectively applied, expressing regret over the lack of investment in reuse, which she claimed would create local employment and keep products in the economy for longer.
She criticised the government, whose role is to act in the national interest, for what she described as a strategic error of abandoning glass and failing to incorporate reuse into the new system.
She also pointed out that the Deposit Return Scheme was highly effective for its intended category, plastic and metal beverage containers of up to three litres in size, saying that these items would no longer be seen in public spaces or continue to pollute the environment.
She noted that in these specific cases, Portugal would achieve a 90% collection rate, despite these containers representing only a small fraction of the total waste.
However, she added that other types of packaging placed in recycling bins or unsorted waste would still require their own solutions.
Despite these criticisms, she expressed optimism, saying that such systems typically saw very high participation rates.
“They convey the idea that packaging has value. Because I’ve already paid for it. And if I don’t return it (we have some doubts as to whether the €0.10 is a sufficient incentive), if I discard it, there’s always someone who will give it value”, she concluded.
FP/MYAL // ADB.
Lusa
