 Poster: A snowHead
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From 1st January 2025, Austria has introduced a plastic drinks bottle and can deposit system to encourage recycling. I believe Germany and several other countries already run a similar system. It has only just started, so may take a few weeks for the logos to start showing up, but any can or bottle with the “Pfand” logo can be returned for 25 cents. You can see what the logo looks like here: https://www.recycling-pfand.at/
You *should* be able to return them to the vendor, but otherwise there will be machines in public places for returning them. These are likely to be found near supermarkets (my Lidl has one next to the entrance). DO NOT CRUSH THEM or they won't be accepted. Only items with the logo are valid – this may take a little while to flow through, I haven't seen any yet.
If you don't have time/can't be arsed to return them, I would suggest rinsing and leaving them on the side for the hotel to claim.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I printed off the instructions for what can and cant go in the yellow bin...there's pages and pages of it.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@holidayloverxx, really? Yellow bin is plastic and metal packaging, excluding aerosols and Pfand items in the main. We get a table on the back of the bin calendar with a list of what goes in where.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Scarlet, good idea posting about this for visitors to Austria 
Our local EuroSpar redisgned their store late last year to incorporate the new pfand system along with some useful info sheets on what can be returned. It’s a good initiative, IMV.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yellow bin is plastic
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Can all plastic packaging be recycled in Austria? Very little is recycled here, sadly, and I think our local authority is particularly bad.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Jäger, it's recycling with extra steps IMV  but I've combined my plastic and metal buckets and reassigned one as Pfand collection, so I'll just take it to the supermarket when its full.
@Origen, yes, most plastic packaging is collected, including polythene, polystyrene, bottles, tubes, trays etc. We throw out very little general waste – about half a tiny slimline wheely bin per fortnight, vs a full large one when we lived in the UK.
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This system has been running for years in Germany. All supermarkets have machines where you can take back bottles both glass and plastic. Always long queues on a Saturday morning at the Getränkemarkt to return crates of bottles. Lighter weight bottles go into another machine to be crushed (much smaller deposit) assume this is the bit now happening in Austria. Generally no yellow bins here but yellow bags, pretty much any plastic or packaging can go in (anything with a Grünerpunkt logo). Paper is separate either drop off at a collection point or pay extra for a paper bin. There is also an organic waste collection too, fortnightly in winter, weekly in summer.
Common sight is homeless folk etc looking for discarded bottles to take back for the deposits
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i assumed Austria already had such a system? Obviously not.
Logo is different to the German one, I guess for the machine to detect properly.
Yellow sack/tonne probably varies a bit from location to location anyway, depending on what the recycling place can handle. For us the "can't take" list is tiny now compared to the "can take", and most of those are the ones that should obviously be going in the paper bin, electronics bin (next to bottle bank, old clothes bin, etc.), or battery recycling/printer cartridge recycling in the leccy store.
If you can't get a bottle back to a machine then leave it under or next to any bin around town, and the homeless will claim it. Although they all have maglight torches for peering inside the bins too.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Common sight is homeless folk etc looking for discarded bottles to take back for the deposits
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When a group of us used French supermarket trolleys to take our goodies, mostly heavy booze, back to the marina, years ago, there were eager small boys only too glad to take them back and get the deposit. Bottles of Corona and similar always had deposits in my young day. It's good to see those coming back.
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| Origen wrote: |
| Bottles of Corona and similar always had deposits in my young day. |
Corona - there's a blast from the past... I remember the >Corona delivery lorries< coming down our street every week 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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been like this in Norway for the past 25 years
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@andy, Austria has had the deposit scheme for beer bottles for many years - including the machines where you deposit your bottles and get a voucher in return. The new initiative is to include pop bottles and beer cans - but only those sold in Austria with the Austrian pfand symbol. The thousands of beer and soda cans that arrive in resorts every season in the boots of German, Dutch and Danish cars will still be recycled through the normal domestic system of separated refuse collection along with the non-pfand glass jars, plastic containers, milk cartons and metal cans.
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First time I went to the Elefantreffen motorbike rally in Germany , sat down with some beers given to us by some German friends , drank and did the normal thing of crush the can to cries of , Nein nein . 
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You know it makes sense.
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We did notice the recycling machine in the Hofer where we stocked up on food and drinks. Have used the system previously in Germany, while a good idea for encouraging recycling, the system in Germany meant you had to take the recycling back to the same shop you bought it, a real pain when travelling. Does anyone know exactly how the Austrian system should work?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Can take most German stuff back to any store IME. The voucher you can only use in that store though. (although years ago you could actually fake a voucher for any amount for any store cos it was just a standard bar code that just says what the credit was  )
Was Mr Bacon's fizzy pop lorry that came round once a week when I was a kid. 10p deposit on every bottle.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@RobinS, not sure how it will work in practice but I think a store is obliged to accept the item only if they stock it. However, you can drop any valid item into the machines though I’m not sure what form the refund takes yet.
I found the German one annoying too. I ended up putting bottles purchased in Munich airport in the normal recycling and felt slightly robbed
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@RobinS, The German system allows any "pfand" bottle or drinks can to be returned to any machine. In many places, the people who can't be bothered to take their bottles back leave their empties beside a litter bin (rather than putting them inside the bin) so that the people who scrape a few cents together by collecting bottles can do so without diving into the bins.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Scarlet wrote: |
@Jäger, it's recycling with extra steps IMV but I've combined my plastic and metal buckets and reassigned one as Pfand collection, so I'll just take it to the supermarket when its full.
@Origen, yes, most plastic packaging is collected, including polythene, polystyrene, bottles, tubes, trays etc. We throw out very little general waste – about half a tiny slimline wheely bin per fortnight, vs a full large one when we lived in the UK. |
The fact that plastics are collected for recycling does not mean they are ultimately recycled. In the US, for a variety of reasons, <10% of plastic waste collected for recycling ends up being recycled. Its depressing as hell.
I hope Austria, and everywhere, does better than we appear to be doing, but I have my doubts. The answer to all questions is money, and virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying, though.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Scooter in Seattle, I do choose my words deliberately, you know
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Running in Ireland for the last Year.
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