Vienna – Austria will soon introduce the Deposit Return System (DRS) for single-use beverage containers, starting on January 1, 2025. The central body of Austrian DRS, EWP Recycling Pfand Österreich gGmbH, has chosen Sensoneo in the public tender to deploy the IT solution, which will serve as the central infrastructure for the entire DRS system.
Currently, only 70% of single-use beverage packaging is being collected in Austria for recycling purposes. The main goal of the country is to reach 80% of collecting rates shortly after deployment of the DRS in 2025, and 90% rates in 2027. From 1 January 2025, all PET bottles, and metal cans with a quantity of 0.1 to 3 liters will be collected in the DRS scheme subjected to a deposit of 25 cents. These products will be identified by the deposit logo and can be returned to all sales outlets at which they are sold.
The Austrian DRS will be powered by a software solution from Sensoneo. This end-to-end and ready-to-integrate software for DRS gathers data from all sources and enables seamless integration between all stakeholders within the process chain. SW is built on cloud-based infrastructure and is agnostic with any return vending machine. Austria is already the sixth country that has chosen the software solution from Sensoneo. The company won all the last 6 tenders for DRS in Europe, among them the world’s largest centralized DRS in Romania, further the DRS systems in Slovakia, Malta, Ireland, and Hungary. The IT system for Slovak DRS was implemented in only 10 months, currently reaching 93% in recycling rates.
