Circular Economy Success: Finland’s recycling programme

Finland’s system for returning beverage containers started in the 1950s, and today almost every bottle and can is recycled. Convenience is the cornerstone of the system’s success.

Finnish residents returned more than two billion bottles and cans in 2020, 93 percent of the total amount purchased in the country. The factors that make this possible include automated bottle-return machines developed decades ago and the expansion of the system to include plastic bottles in the 2000s.

The EU directive on single-use plastics has focused additional attention on bottle recycling and sustainability. Approved by an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament in 2019, the directive stipulates that, by 2029, 90 percent of plastic beverage bottles should be recycled. Since Finland handily surpassed that mark years ago, its system is attracting notice as a possible solution for use in other countries.

Recycling bottles and cans conserves energy and raw materials, and reduces litter in cities and wilderness areas. Beverage containers become part of the circular economy as their materials are recycled into new containers or reused in other products.

Manufacturing new cans from recycled aluminium requires only 5 percent of the energy that would be used to make cans from scratch, and making new glass from recycled glass consumes 30 percent less energy than manufacturing glass from scratch. (The stats come from the website of Palpa, the nonprofit company that runs Finland’s bottle and can recycling operations.)

The first bottle recycling programmes began back in the 1950s. Nowadays there are almost 5,000 container-return machines across Finland. Most of them are located in the same shops and kiosks that sell beverages, making returning them a convenient part of people’s routine. Hotels, restaurants, offices, schools and event organisers return containers through their beverage providers.

Every time a person buys a beverage in a bottle or can, they pay a deposit of 15 to 40 cents. The system covers alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and bottled water, in aluminium cans, glass bottles and bottles made from PET plastic.

(Source: By Evgenie Bogdanov and ThisisFINLAND staff, updated June 2021 – finland.fi)