Close to 20 Million Euros in Volta Deposits Sit Unclaimed, With Fewer Than Half of Bottles and Cans Coming Back
627 million deposit-bearing containers were sold from April to July and the return rate to August was 44 percent. The 10 cents left behind on each one helps pay for the scheme, its operator says.
Close to 20 million euros in Volta deposits had not been claimed back by the end of the summer, according to figures from SDR Portugal, the non-profit association that runs Portugal's drinks container return scheme. Fewer than half of the bottles and cans sold with the 10 cent deposit since April have come back through the machines.
The numbers
SDR Portugal told the Jornal de Notícias (JN) that 627 million containers carrying the Volta symbol were placed on the market between April and July. The live counter on the scheme's own website, volta.com.pt, stood at 440.3 million containers returned on Monday morning. The association also told JN that its closed data to the end of August show a return rate of 44 percent.
Set against the April to July sales alone, Monday's counter leaves about 187 million containers unreturned, or 18.7 million euros in deposits. JN, writing when the counter stood at 430 million, put the sum at 19.7 million euros. Either figure is a floor, not a total: the counter keeps rising with every return, while the sales figure stops at July and leaves out everything sold in August and September. It is also not all lost money. Some of those containers are still on shop shelves or in people's homes, waiting to be returned.
Where the unclaimed money goes
The deposit is fixed by law at 0.10 euros on every single-use plastic bottle and metal or aluminium can of up to 3 litres. Glass is not part of the scheme. Shoppers pay it at the till and get it back when they return the empty container to a collection point.
Deposits that are never reclaimed stay inside the scheme. SDR Portugal says on its website that the scheme is funded by three sources: the sale of the collected packaging material, fees paid by the drinks producers, and "o valor dos depósitos não reclamados" (the value of unclaimed deposits). Containers that do not meet the return conditions also lose their deposit, according to the association's own answers to common questions.
SDR Portugal brings together more than twenty drinks producers and retailers. Under Decreto-Lei n.º 24/2024 (Decree-Law 24/2024), which brought the scheme into Portuguese law, it runs under licence from the Government. The machines themselves are paid for by the shops that host them, which receive a handling fee in return.
Six months in
Volta started on 10 April 2026. Its purpose is to meet the European target, set in the single-use plastics directive and transposed by Decreto-Lei n.º 78/2021, of collecting 90 percent of single-use plastic drinks bottles separately by 2029. SDR Portugal says the old yellow recycling bins collected about 40 percent of these containers.
There are now more than 3,000 automatic Volta points in supermarkets and hypermarkets across the country, according to the scheme's website. JN reports that Aveiro, Mafra, Oeiras and Vila do Conde are next in line for larger kiosks that can store more bottles.
The first months have been rocky. On 1 September the Environment Minister, Maria da Graça Carvalho, acknowledged problems, from too few machines to people emptying recycling bins in search of the refund. A fortnight later the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, asked the Government to scrap the scheme altogether, calling the deposit a tax. The minister replied that Volta stays, with adjustments.
What to do with your empties
SDR Portugal's conditions are simple, and missing any one of them costs the 10 cents. The container must be completely empty, not damaged or crushed out of shape, with a readable barcode and the Volta symbol visible. Anything the machine refuses goes in the ordinary recycling bin for its material, with no refund. Collection points are listed on volta.com.pt.
