Collection and deposit statistics

Every year, we compile statistics on how much is submitted to the deposit system in Sweden and thus can be recycled into new cans and bottles. In 2023, more packaging was sold than ever before – 3.09 billion cans and bottles – and of these, more than 2.72 billion were recycled. The collection rate for 2023 ended up at 88.5 per cent.

The use of the deposit system varies between different municipalities and different types of municipalities. More packaging is generally recycled per inhabitant in border municipalities and tourist municipalities than in other municipalities of a comparable size. The use of the deposit system in the border municipality of Haparanda has increased by more than 33 per cent. In other municipalities where use of the system has increased – such as Klippan, Vaggeryd and Haninge – one common denominator is the fact that they all installed large reverse vending machines during the year.

“Yet again in 2023, the best municipality in terms of use of the deposit system was Strömstad, with more than 4,500 packages recycled per person. Here, they are on their way back to the levels of recycled packaging that were reported before the pandemic years,” says Katarina Lundell, Marketing and Communications Manager for Pantamera at Returpack.

A functioning deposit system

In our latest Kantar SIFO survey, 97 per cent of the respondents state that they use the deposit system, but not always and for everything. In the survey, the respondents themselves are asked to estimate their consumption and their use of the deposit system – and here we see that the estimated recycling rate is 91 per cent for all respondents. We have broken down this figure for the 16-29 year age group, where we can see that men aged 16-29 years old have increased their estimated recycling rate from 74 per cent in 2013 to 80 per cent in 2023. For young women, the corresponding figures are 83 per cent in 2013 and 89 per cent in 2023. For both groups, this equates to a shift of 6 percentage points.

“In addition, 80 per cent of the respondents say that they have confidence in the deposit system. This is a good sign that our Swedish deposit system is working well,” says Katarina Lundell.

Accessibility – an important piece of the puzzle

Around 92 per cent of all use of the recycling system occurs via reverse vending machines in stores. In addition, accessibility to deposit stations throughout Sweden is an important piece of the puzzle in the circular deposit flow. Returpack’s own large reverse vending machines, Pantamera Express, received 150 million packages, which is an increase of just over 9 per cent compared to the previous year. Here, recyclers can empty entire bags of packaging in one go and have the money paid out in several different ways, for example via Swish.