The European Commission has registered a Citizens’ Initiative to implement a deposit scheme across the bloc for recycling plastic bottles. A European Citizens’ Initiative is a system whereby people in member states can indicate their support for a particular action by completing a form available through their country’s organising authority.

As well as calling on the Commission to implement a deposit scheme, the “ReturnthePlastics” initiative is asking that all member states incentivise supermarkets to install reverse vending machines and adopt the ‘polluter pays’ principle, whereby the producers of the plastic bottles pay the costs incurred.

Now that the EU Commission has registered the initiative, the organisers can start collecting signatures. If the “ReturnthePlastics” initiative receives at least one million statements of support within a year of the registration date (13 August 2021) from a minimum of seven different member states, the Commission is obligated to react. However, it added that it will decide to either take the request forward or not, although the it would be required to explain its reasoning.