Labor Day is behind us, the weather served us to some extent and we are convinced that most of us spent this weekend somewhere in the air, in the pleasant company of family and friends, with a barbecue and some cold drinks.
Likewise, we are convinced that today, all of us who enjoyed the company yesterday, have the same question on our minds: Where now with all those enormous empty bottles of juice, water, wine, beer…?
We are sure that your car trunks, like ours, contain at least one bag of such bottles that you plan to store somewhere.
In a container with communal waste? Not at all.
Throw it through the car window somewhere in the forest? Not even in madness.
In the neighbor’s trash can? It is neither human nor right.
There is a better, far more correct and cost-effective way to dispose of bottles.
Look out for the return charge label on your empty bottles!
According to the Ordinance on packaging and packaging waste, you can hand over bottles with a return fee label to nearby stores that sell drinks, and they are larger than 200 square meters. They are obliged to collect the packaging from you and, for each correct and empty bottle, pay you a return fee in the amount of HRK 0.50 per packaging unit.
The return fee is a monetary amount paid by beverage manufacturers as an incentive measure to encourage the return of packaging and thereby reduce the impact on the environment by recycling the materials from which the packaging is made.
In the same way, it is possible to return bottles of milk and milk products with a volume of more than 2 dl, just make sure that the bottles must have a return fee label, they must be correct, undamaged and emptied of their contents.
In many shopping centers and stores that sell drinks, you will find machines for accepting packaging, and in some, cheerful and smiling staff in Interseroh colors who will inspect and collect your packaging and issue a payment slip for it, which you can cash in at the cash registers.
What is important to know?
Not every packaging is the right packaging for which you can get HRK 0.50 per bottle. Bottles that are damaged or have no labels, are of foreign origin or do not have a refund mark, contain liquid in them or contents, are not entitled to a refund.
Despite the fact that they may not have a return fee, it is equally important to adequately sort them and dispose of them in containers designed for plastic or glass packaging, depending on which materials the bottles are made of.
It is also important to know that there is a daily limit for packaging with a return fee, which amounts to a maximum of 80 pieces of packaging units per person in one day.
Remember that the next time the packaging reception employee returns a couple of bottles to you because they are not correct or because you have already handed over your daily limit.
Do not be angry, he does not decide on his own, but only follows the instructions of the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency, which prescribes the way to deal with waste packaging in the return compensation system.
Return your packaging and dispose of it in the prescribed containers, because only by meaningful and responsible actions of each of us can we influence the world we leave to future generations.
If you are a shopping center or a seller who puts non-returnable packaging on the market in the return fee system and accepting the packaging is causing you a headache, contact us. We will be happy to share our knowledge with you and offer you advice or fully organize packaging acceptance for you in order to fulfill your legal obligation to your customers.
Author: Adriana Budak
