Portugal launched its national deposit return scheme in April 2026, called Volta. The scheme is designed to get people into the habit of returning their empty drink containers rather than just throwing them in the bin and sits within a larger effort to boost recycling rates and cut down on plastic waste — all steps toward building a more circular economy. The backstory is Portugal had been falling well short of EU recycling targets. Plastic bottle collection rates were sitting at around 37% in 2024 — a long way off the 90% target the EU wants member states to hit by 2029. Volta covers single-use plastic bottles and aluminium and steel drinks cans up to three litres, including everyday drinks like water, soft drinks, beer, and juice.
Not everything is included though — glass bottles, juice cartons, and dairy packaging like milk bottles are all left out of the scheme. When you buy an eligible drink, you pay an extra 10 cents deposit on top of the price, and you get that back when you return the empty container. To get your refund, the barcode needs to still be readable, and the container has to show the Volta logo so the machines can process it. Shops bigger than 400 square metres are legally required to take returns, and plenty of smaller retailers are joining in voluntarily. Reverse vending machines are being installed in supermarkets, shopping centres, kiosks, restaurants, and public spaces across the country. Refunds can come back to you as cash, a digital transfer, a voucher, or an in-store discount — whichever works best for you.
Portugal is the 19th European country to bring in this kind of system, and notably the first larger market in Southern Europe to do so. The evidence from elsewhere in Europe is pretty compelling — European Commission research shows well-run deposit return schemes regularly hit collection rates above 90%. Countries like Germany, Norway, Finland, and Lithuania have demonstrated what’s possible. The reason these schemes work so well is that containers are sorted at the point of return, rather than getting mixed in with everything else in a household recycling bin. That means cleaner materials, less contamination, less litter on the streets, and better-quality recycled materials for manufacturers to actually use in new packaging.
Setting up the infrastructure costs money — the machines, the logistics, the whole operation. But in practice, those costs tend to balance out over time through unclaimed deposits, income from recovered materials, and savings on general waste management. In most countries running these schemes, the costs are largely covered by drink producers, who are required to take responsibility for their packaging under extended producer responsibility rules.
