Portugal's bottle deposit scheme surpasses 305 million returns

Portugal's deposit-return scheme, volta, has collected more than 305 million drink containers since launching on 10 April, according to operator SDR Portugal. Returns tripled in the last two months alone, after passing 100 million in July. Around 5 million containers are now returned daily, roughly 57 per second, through a network of over 3,000 automated collection points plus manual points and dedicated kiosks. Seven of twelve planned kiosks are already running, with five more being installed, as SDR Portugal aims to reach 50 nationwide and keep expanding capacity for returning packaging to the circular economy.