Estonians keep returning deposit containers despite unchanged fee

People in Estonia continue to return deposit containers at high rates despite the 10-cent fee remaining unchanged, ERR reports. The Climate Ministry has not considered raising the deposit because return rates remain high and show no significant decline.

Estonian Deposit Packaging collected more than 355 million single-use containers in 2025, around 1% more than in 2024. It recovered 86% of glass packaging, 91% of metal packaging and 88% of plastic packaging.

The deposit was last changed in 2015, when the rates for different types of packaging were standardised at 10 cents. Before then, plastic bottles carried a five-cent deposit and glass bottles a 10-cent deposit. The rate has stayed the same since, while prices have risen considerably.

Dagny Repp, head of packaging at the Climate Ministry, told ERR that a deposit increase would be considered if return rates began to fall clearly. Some containers end up in mixed municipal or packaging waste, are damaged and cannot be recognised by return machines, or leave Estonia. Repp also said some returns may be recorded later if a product is bought in one year and its packaging returned the next.

Estonian Deposit Packaging, which organises the collection system, reported revenue of 55.5 million euros last year, an increase of nearly 1%. Most of its sales revenue came from deposits on packaging placed on the market, followed by sales of packaging waste and handling fees paid by packaging companies. Its net profit was 2.145 million euros.