Although legislative work on the final shape of the deposit system in Poland is still ongoing, further initiatives are appearing on the market aimed at preparing Poles for the new law and changing their existing habits in the field of waste management, such as plastic, glass or aluminum. The latest of them is the installation of machines in Warsaw's Carrefour stores allowing the return of used plastic bottles and aluminum beverage cans, as well as returnable glass bottles.
PETfur machines installed in Warsaw
Automatic bottle dispensers with the humorous name PETfur are created both in hypermarkets belonging to the chain, as well as smaller stores, such as supermarkets and local stores.
Carrefour is a retailer and manufacturer. He has a lot of bail obligations
Carrefour is one of the largest omnichannel chains in Poland, which has over 800 stores in our country and operates in almost every market format. This company is also a significant manufacturer, as it already offers over 4,000 products under its own brand. This means that, in accordance with the new act, its obligation will not only be to collect beverage packaging from customers and calculate and pay deposits, but also to collect the amount of packaging for products placed on the market, as provided for in the regulations.
– The installation of machines for collecting used packaging in our Warsaw stores is another step towards Carrefour Polska launching a full-fledged deposit system in line with the requirements of the Act later this year. Our goal is, on the one hand, to prepare our stores for active participation in the new system, but also to educate Polish society about the benefits of returning deposit packaging. We created a humorous name PETfur for our bottle dispensers in order to convey this message also to the young generation, which is one of the largest groups consuming drinks in PET packaging – says Sylwester Mroczek, Manager of the Format and Commercial Concepts Development Department.
– We have been testing various models of this system in various formats of our stores for almost 3 years. We have developed know-how, which we will now gradually scale to our entire store network. Today we are ready to accept 100% returnable glass bottles from customers, and we are currently focusing on refining the model for dealing with PET and aluminum. We are working to make Carrefour stand out from other stores that collect packaging, not only with quality and customer convenience, but also with the speed of service and positive shopping experiences – adds Sylwester Mroczek.
3 years of testing, 20 million packages collected and 45 million bottles
Carrefour is one of the first retail chains in Poland to start preparations for the implementation of the deposit system. Already in December 2020, the chain started collecting returnable glass bottles manually in its Warsaw stores without having to show proof of purchase and paying customers the full deposit in payment vouchers. To date, Carrefour has already collected over 45 million glass bottles from customers, which means that the collection of this type of packaging is more than twice as large as their sales in all chain stores during the test period.
In January 2023, the company expanded its preparations for the implementation of the deposit system and, together with EKOPunkt Packaging Recovery Organization, started automatic collection of beverage packaging in 10 hyper- and supermarkets in the Silesian Voivodeship in a network of bottle dispensers. As part of it, Carrefour started accepting used plastic and aluminum packaging from customers, paying 15 cents for each piece, and customers receive these funds in the form of e-vouchers, which they can use to immediately pay for their purchases. This test is still being carried out, and over the past 1.5 years, the company has managed to collect over 20 million packages from customers, which were professionally recycled.
In March 2024, it created and presented the first product in Poland that meets all the requirements of the new act and also sets trends in the upcoming deposit system. It is mineral water produced under Carrefour's own brand and offered in a 0.5 liter plastic package. The bottle label of this water is equipped with a two-dimensional code compliant with the GS1 standard, which provides much more information about the product and data important in the supply chain and returnable packaging circulation. The code allows, among other things, to optimize key business processes on the part of entities operating the deposit system, and also significantly increases the security of returnable packaging circulation, protecting it against possible abuses. The bottle label also contains information about the deposit amount, the operator of the deposit system, and recommends not to crush the packaging and return it to get the deposit back.
