By Vladislav Vorotnikov

Though the deposit return system (DRS) has exceeded expectations in its implementation in Slovakia, the country’s government has announced plans to “reform” the system, reportedly to enable transparency. A group of European environmental organisations and leading industry groups have filed an open letter to the Slovakian government urging officials to abandon the controversial amendment. 

The joint letter – signed by environmental NGOs Reloop (Brussels; www.reloopplatform.org) and Zero Waste Europe (Brussels; www.zerowasteeurope.eu), and industry groups Brewers of Europe, Europen, Natural Mineral Waters Europe, and UNESDA, among others – expresses concern about the recently rolled out amendments, which are designed to give the Finance Ministry the reins of power over the DRS Administrator. In particular, the proposed changes would empower the ministry with the right to change the founding documents of the DRS Administrator and unilaterally recall and nominate its board members. 

The organisations said that the associations representing producers and retailers could, de facto, lose control over the DRS Administrator, which they would nevertheless continue to own and bear final responsibility for. 

The Slovak Finance Ministry justifies the reform by citing the need to increase transparency and improve state oversight of the system. The letter’s authors warn, however, that trying to streamline the DRS system can break something that already works smoothly. 

Related: Latvia’s DRS operator claims 80% of all beverage containers returned

Since its launch in 2022, the Slovak DRS has achieved significant results in improving the collection and recycling of single-use beverage packaging, exceeding legal targets and bringing the collection rate for this waste stream to above 90% already in 2023, many years ahead of the mandatory EU targets. 

The market players warned against rejigging the Slovak DRS, emphasising that “it is clearly one of the leading examples of a well-organised DRS and serves as an inspiration for many other European countries that are preparing to establish their own DRS”. 

The Slovakian plastics industry has yet to react to the open letter. Slovak Plastic Cluster (Bratislava; www.portal.spklaster.sk), the country’s leading plastics industry association, did not provided comments on the issue in response to Plasteurope.com’s request by press time.