Lithuania becomes the best recycler in Europe

The baltic country of Lithuania is making huge strides towards creating a circular economy, in which each and every plastic bottle and aluminum can is recycled and turned into an identical successor. Also, in two years they already have a recycling rate for plastic packaging of 74% - by far the highest of any European country, and 44% higher than the EU average.

They also reached 91.9% rate of recycling for all bottles and cans after the introduction of a deposit-refund scheme for plastic, aluminum, and glass food and beverage containers—and the program is as simple as can be. When the consumer buys a product, which is packaged in a returnable recyclable container, they pay a €0.10 tax which is refunded when the consumer returns the packaging to a special reverse-vending machine.

Any store that chooses to sell grocery items in designated recyclable containers are provided with reverse vending machines to place either inside the store or outdoors. Consumers are paid in vouchers that can be redeemed in store as cash or credit toward their shopping bill, which brings additional foot traffic into stores. USAD, the Lithuanian non-profit that designed the system, set a goal for a 55% return rate in 2016 but managed to reach 74.3% by the end of only one year—and people were mostly pleased with the system by the closing of next year.

“We feel an obligation to take care of our country, society and nature. That is why we wanted to design a deposit return system that would work as well as possible for citizens, producers, importers and traders. We can be proud of our deposit return system, which brings us closer to the Lithuania we want to see—a cleaner, more beautiful and more modern country.” - Saulius Galadauskas, Chairman of USAD as well as Head of the Lithuanian Brewers Association.