Another chain is testing bottle machines. How much can you get for returning a bottle?

At the beginning of next year, a deposit system is to be launched, which involves charging a deposit when buying a drink and returning it when returning the empty packaging to a collection point, i.e. a store. It is estimated that 144 million people in Europe use the deposit system. Residents of 13 countries have such opportunities. It is already operating successfully, among others, in our neighbors (Slovakia, Lithuania and Germany). Recently, countries such as Hungary, Romania and Ireland have introduced their own systems. Others, such as the Netherlands and Germany, are expanding the ones that are currently operating.

Stores will be required to collect bottles. The system can work in two ways: it will be permissible for the bottles to be collected by an employee, who will then pay the customer a refundable deposit – or for the devices to be installed. Large stores prefer the latter solution, so bottle vending machines are being installed at discount stores and supermarkets.

How much can you earn for returning bottles?

A few weeks ago, the first Biedronka bottle vending machine was placed at a store in Skórzewo on Poznańska Street.

In exchange for each bottle returned, the customer can count on a 5 groszy discount, which will be deducted from their shopping bill. As you can easily calculate, to get a 5 PLN discount, you would have to put exactly 100 bottles in such a machine. In the future, this rate is to be increased, and for now, the program of introducing “bottle vending machines” to popular chain stores is a pilot program.

Bottle vending machines in front of the Centrum Delicatessen

The Eurocash Group, owner of, among others, Delikatesy Centrum, is also testing solutions.

Tests of accepting returnable beverage packaging are already underway – they are being carried out in the Łódź province in a selected group of stores of various formats. We will gradually expand these activities to other provinces, so that when the act enters into force, stores can efficiently serve customers as part of the purchase and return of deposit packaging – admitted Joanna Szubielska, Senior Manager for Quality Assurance and Occupational Health and Safety, in response to questions from “Wprost”.

As part of the test, the consumer receives 10 groszy for a returned PET package or a beverage can, up to a maximum of PLN 5 for a single return. Then, they can use this amount for purchases in a given store within 7 days.

– After the tests are completed, Eurocash Group will present recommendations to stores based on the Group’s franchise model, and their owners will choose the method of collecting deposit packaging. If they decide, for example, on a bottle vending machine, the purchase of a device adapted to the format of their store will be the franchisee’s responsibility – she added.

Shops have reservations about the deposit system

Renata Juszkiewicz, president of the Polish Organization of Trade and Distribution, revealed that the price of such a device ranges from PLN 100,000 to PLN 160,000. This amount was mentioned during a conversation about the fact that retail chains are not happy with the obligation to organize a deposit system being transferred to them. They have to finance it and only later can they hope that companies introducing bottles to sale will reimburse the costs.

– Despite the announcements that the costs of the deposit system are to be borne by those introducing it, in practice the trade will have to finance the infrastructure for collecting deposit packaging on their own and count on the fact that these costs may be reimbursed in the future. Due to the short implementation time, most system operators are either still waiting for a permit or are in the development phase of their capabilities. Unfortunately, manual collection should be expected in most retail outlets at the beginning of 2025. Convenient and safe, from the point of view of customers, bottle vending machines will be available only in some stores that decide to risk purchasing them – said Juszkiewicz.