Date, amount per container, regions concerned… What you need to know about the return of the glass deposit

The deposit system for glass bottles and jars will be tested in part of France. The return of this principle in spring 2025 should help reduce the environmental impact of this packaging.

The deposit system will soon be making a comeback. The principle: you will be able to recover a certain amount as soon as you return a glass bottle or jar. This packaging can then be reused, that is to say reused as is, unlike the glass that you put in the bins provided for this purpose which is recycled. Four regions will experiment with the system from spring 2025. The amount of the deposit, which will be recovered by the people returning their packaging, will be between 20 and 30 cents per container (bottle or jar). Franceinfo summarizes what you need to know about the return of this system.

A practice tested from May 2025

The production of these glass containers is planned from October 2024 according to Citeo, a private company specializing in packaging recycling. It is counting on the installation of collection devices in stores from March 2025, before marketing in supermarkets in May. The first available packages will be one-liter wide-neck bottles, containing fruit juices and soups. Then there will be those for large 75 cl amber bottles, particularly for beer, then jars of preserves, compotes and fromage blanc, before the 33 centiliter amber bottles.

To reduce the environmental impact of packaging, the objective is to reach 10% of glass bottles and jars reused by 2027, in accordance with the Agec law on the circular economy of February 2020. Overall, the reuse of packaging is currently estimated at less than 1% according to Célia Rennesson, director of the Vrac et Réemploi network. She emphasizes that there are very strong disparities depending on the sector, with daily consumption being the weak link. Note that the 30 million packages targeted will be cleaned in the Bout’ à Bout’ laundromat in Carquefou, near Nantes.

Four test regions

This experiment, announced by Citeo at the beginning of July, will concern 16 million French people from four large regions in the northwest of France. These are the Pays de la Loire, Brittany, Normandy and Hauts-de-France. These regions were chosen, according to the company specializing in packaging recycling, “notably because of their dynamism in reuse, with sorting performances well above average”. Citeo hopes in the long term to “generalization” nationwide.

An amount estimated at “around 20 or 30 cents” per container

According to the company, the amount remains to be defined precisely. It must still be set by an order of the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). But “we will be around 20 or 30 cents” per glass container, specifies Jean Hornain, general director of Citeo, in an interview published Tuesday August 20 in the daily newspaper West France. The price could be different. “depending on the format” of the container.

An effect on the purchase price

This effect is inevitable, “while the question of purchasing power is central.” Jean Hornain specifies that he wants “avoid the deterrent effect” in “advancing”, for example the first instructions to consumers. For her part, the director of Vrac et Réemploi emphasizes that the instructions “reduces the cost price of the glass bottle, since it is used many times”According to her, reusing glass bottles saves 75% of energy, 50% of water and 79% of CO2.