A decisive step to reduce marine pollution

Acknowledgement of non-compliance

The ministry has made public that Spain does not meet the recovery target of 70% of disposable plastic beverage bottles up to 3 liters established by the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soil for a circular economy. Only 41.3% of such bottles are recovered. This is a BREACH…in capital letters.

This non-compliance triggers the obligation for bottling companies, manufacturers, and distributors to implement a deposit, return and refund system (SDDR) for beverage containers throughout Spain within a maximum of 2 years.

Implications

At last, a solution to the proliferation of disposable packaging abandoned on beaches, streets, and natural spaces is beginning to be found. This pollution has a significant impacts ecosystems as every day in Spain more than 35 million disposable containers are abandoned. Yes, EVERY DAY. In the Balearic Islands, we are talking about more than one million containers that pollute our marine and terrestrial ecosystems daily and are integrated into the waters of the Mediterranean for hundreds of years. Packaging that, thanks to the SDDR, will no longer be present in the natural environment because it will have an associated value that will encourage its return in stores.

In the Balearic Islands, this is a particularly important milestone. It comes after more than ten years of joint campaigns with the entities of the platform For a Plastic Free Sea, after the development of multiple studies, after the realisation of work with businesses and municipalities, and after the approval of the Law of Waste and Contaminated Soil of the Balearic Islands that allowed the design of the pilot return of packaging on the island of Formentera. Finally, at the latest in November 2026, we will be able to go to stores and supermarkets and return plastic bottles, cans, and cartons of water, soft drinks, juices, energy and isotonic drinks, and some alcoholic beverages such as beer.

Recovery of a packaging management model that does not waste natural resources or pollute our territory

The return of packaging is a model that is not new to our country. Before the food and beverages industry switched to distributing its products in disposable packaging, the usual practice was that our containers were collected in stores and supermarkets and refilled and reused.

The SDDR approach contemplated in the Spanish Waste Law and the Royal Decree on Packaging, unfortunately, leaves out glass containers (in response to certain pressures from the sector in the negotiation phase of the regulation and one environmental organisations denounced at the time).
Even so, we will work towards ensuring that once the SDDR is implemented, glass containers will be included in a generalised way to move decisively towards reuse. That would be true circular economy.
This step will undoubtedly represent an important advance as a society, as businesses and companies move towards a model of production and consumption that does not continue to waste natural resources and faces the challenges of our present with vision and responsibility.

We will continue working to make sure that the implementation of the system is done within the established deadlines, avoiding possible delay strategies and ensuring that maximum recovery is achieved and that returnable and reusable packaging is a reality in our stores.