When you purchase any bottles or cans at a supermarket or any other kind of retail store in Germany, you will pay a deposit on top of the original price. In order to get your deposit back, you have to take your empty bottles and cans to a return machine (Pfandautomat). You put the container into the machine, the machine then processes it with a pleasing crunch, and once it’s finished it will print a coupon which you can exchange for cash or use it at the store.

In Germany, there are two different types of Pfand. These are:
* Multi-use bottles (Mehrweg): Multi-use bottles are usually made of glass or plastic that’s much thicker and will be refilled as much as 50 times before they’re recycled. Multi-use bottles can be non-alcoholic glass bottles, beer bottles, and soft drink bottles made from thicker plastic and yogurt glasses. The deposit for these bottles can be anywhere from 8 to 15 cents.
* Single-use bottles (Einweg): As the name suggests, single-use bottles are only ever used once and are recycled immediately. Typically, this category includes thinner plastic bottles and the majority of cans. Given that single-use bottles tend to have more of a negative impact on the environment, the deposit for this category is always 25 cents.

There are also types of bottles out there with no deposit attached to them. These are:
Wine bottles
Bottles of spirits
Small cans
Milk and juice bottles
And bottles from overseas
#lidl #recycling #germany

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