More bulk machines that can process dozens of deposit bottles, cans placed in NL

The Netherlands is getting more large, bulk machines capable of processing dozens of deposit bottles and cans at once. In the first half of this year, the number of these machines nearly doubled from 90 to 170, AD reports based on figures obtained from Verpact.

The bulk machines are intended to relieve supermarkets, which are experiencing quite a lot of pressure from deposit returns. “New locations are being opened weekly,” said a spokesperson for Verpact, the organization responsible for collecting bottles and cans and paying out deposits.

Verpact is placing these bulk machines at locations people frequent with their cars - car washes, garden centers, and wholesalers. It hopes that the ability to return large numbers of cans and bottles at once will also increase the number of cans and bottles returned. Verpact intends to place the 300th bulk machine before the end of the year.

For years, the business community has failed to meet the statutory collection target of 90 percent of all bottles and cans returned. Last year, only around 87 percent of cans and around 85 percent of bottles made their way back for the deposit. If the Netherlands does not meet its collection target, it can expect strict measures from the European Union from 2029.

“Customers are thrilled with them,” an employee at a garden center in Hoorn, where a bulk machine was placed last month, told AD, “You dump your bag in, and it instantly counts how many you have returned. It is ideal.”