25 cents from January

Beverage manufacturers anticipate deposit frustration

The one-way deposit will be introduced at the start of 2025(Bild: Robert Jäger)

25 cents per item - that's how much a deposit will have to be paid from January 2025 when you buy a disposable drinks bottle or can in Austria. Will the change have an impact on consumer sentiment? Vöslauer and the Starzinger Group definitely fear a deposit frustration at the beginning.

Vöslauer boss Herbert Schlossnikl wants to double the proportion of reusable bottles from 20 to 40 percent by 2030. He is hoping for an additional boost from the planned one-way deposit and also wants to push reusable plastic and glass.

There will be a changeover in Austria from January: a 25 cent deposit will be charged on disposable drinks bottles and cans. Schlossnikl expects that most containers on supermarket shelves will be returnable bottles from April.

"People will be grumpy"
The introduction of the one-way deposit will also make demands on consumers. "People will be grumpy," says Head of Marketing Yvonne Haider-Lenz. "It can't be good for product sales," fears Patrick Moser, Managing Director of the Starzinger Group. Moser speaks of "a variety of effects": for example, there will be an increased coordination effort between retailers and manufacturers, and old labels will have to be brought onto the market in good time before the changeover takes place.

After years of learning to squeeze and then dispose of their plastic bottles and aluminum cans, consumers now have to return them intact to the deposit machines. This is a huge change that goes against the trend towards ever more convenient and uncomplicated consumption. "Convenience always wins," says Moser.