There will be a confusing first phase, but the system is easy to learn, identical to existing deposit models.
“It is perhaps the largest environmental project ever implemented in Portugal.” This is how the Minister of the Environment Deposit and Refund System (SDR).
It is the collection of plastic and metal packaging with financial compensation (10 cents). Single-use plastic and metal packaging can be placed in machines, which return the 10 cents that the consumer paid extra for them.
The new system, an investment of 150 million euros without public funding, it starts this Friday.
The SDR already exists in 18 countrieswith good results, and has been praised by environmental organizations.
Here, the environmental association Zero considers the new method important: “For Zero it is a important step, We have defended this system for many years, since its debate in the Assembly of the Republic, in 2018, when it was supposed to come into operation in 2022, and since then we have always tried to fight for its implementation”.
Vice-president Susana Fonseca admits that there will be a confusing first phase, but adds that the system is easy to learn, identical to deposit models that already exist (at festivals, for example), and guarantees that, for the universe for which it is intended, “it has a very large collection capacity”.
But Susana regrets, at the Lusa agency, that apply to disposable products and not for reuse; and regrets even more that not include the glasswhen to her or prior.
“This is one of the big flaws of the system. Zero and other environmental organizations in Portugal fought hard to maintain the glass, which was what was in the law” of 2018, he says.
“And the Glass is one of the materials that makes the most sense for us to collect”, he emphasizes, remembering that Portugal does not meet the goal of recycling glass, a 100% recyclable and durable material whose raw material the country imports.
“We had every reason to include glass in the system. Unfortunately there was a political decision not to follow what had been approved. The Government decided to change the law of the Assembly of the Republic and with that decision the country was harmed”, he highlights.
SDR had another “missed opportunity”
With glass in the SDR, Portugal would meet the recycling targets for this material, because beverage packaging is in most cases made of glass (beers for example). But, he regrets, Portugal will not meet its targets.
A set up was disposable-centric system “when we have goals to achieve” in reuse. “Now we have to create a system to meet these goals and that is a mistake.”
Susana Fonseca points out the dependence of Portugal from raw materials, says that economic resilience is not put into practice in Portugal, regrets that there is no focus on reuse, which creates local jobs and keeps products in the economy for longer. And he adds: the Government, which is supposed to make decisions for the good of the country, has already abandoned glass, a strategic error, and did not integrate reuse.
Note that the SDR “is highly effective” for the universe for which it is intended, plastic and metal beverage packaging of up to three liters, which will no longer appear in public spaces and will no longer contaminate the environment.
In these cases, Portugal, he assures, will comply with the 90% collection feeeven though those packages represent a small portion of the total universe. The others, placed in recycling bins and undifferentiated waste, will also need solutions.
For now, regarding the SDR, Susana Fonseca is optimistic. It says that as a rule these systems have a rate of accession very high. “They bring the notion that that packaging has value. Because I already paid for it. And if I don’t deliver it (we have some doubts about whether the 10 cents is a sufficient incentive), if I abandon it, There is always someone who values you”.
