As the summer season gets under way, beverage consumption traditionally rises in Latvia, and with it the volume of packaging returned through the deposit system. During this period the amount of packaging coming back into the system is, on average, 62% higher than in winter. The biggest peaks are usually reached in the first few days after Midsummer, when the volume of packaging returned in a single day tops 2 million units, according to last year's figures. Yet despite these high return rates, close to 16% of deposit packaging in Latvia still never makes it back into the system. To draw attention to returning these resources into circulation and to help protect the environment, a campaign called “Return It, So It Can Meet You Again!” is being launched.

Data from the deposit system shows that small-volume beverage packaging is the least likely to come back into circulation, cans especially (23%). This is largely explained by cross-border trade: a significant amount of the drinks bought in Latvia ends up, together with travellers, in neighbouring countries and Scandinavia. Small PET packaging is also among the types most often not returned.

In summer, as the number of trips, festivals and picnics rises, consumption of this kind of packaging goes up too, so every unit that isn't returned means not only a broken cycle but also a lost chance to reuse those materials. “The Midsummer holidays and summer heat are when the deposit system runs at maximum capacity. Our aim is to remind people that every can or bottle left on a beach or in a forest isn't simply rubbish, but a lost resource. By returning packaging, we close the loop – used packaging turns into something new and is soon back on shop shelves. It matters that every unreturned item also means a long-term burden on the environment,” says Miks Stūrītis, chairman of the board of SIA Depozīta Iepakojuma Operators (DIO).

If packaging never makes it to a deposit point and is left in nature, the consequences for the environment can last a very long time. An aluminium can left by the roadside or in a forest can persist for several hundred years, a plastic bottle for up to 450 years, while glass barely breaks down in the environment at all and can survive for hundreds of thousands of years.

The campaign “Return It, So It Can Meet You Again!” aims to remind people that deposit packaging isn't rubbish, but a valuable resource that can be brought back into circulation. “Returning packaging through the deposit system cuts consumption of non-renewable resources, reduces environmental pollution and ensures packaging becomes raw material for new products instead of staying out in nature. For Latvia, it also reduces imports of packaging raw materials, meaning more money stays in circulation within the country rather than flowing abroad. That's why Depozīta punkts is also urging people not to leave packaging in forests, by bodies of water or in household waste during summer trips and holidays, but to take it to the nearest deposit point instead, letting it come back again as a new can or bottle!” says Miks Stūrītis.

While handing in larger volumes of packaging would ideally be more convenient, Latvia does have special high-capacity solutions for taking in packaging. One is the most powerful reverse vending machine in the Baltics – the Dižtaromāts in Mežciems (28 Hipokrāta Street, Riga), where PET bottles, cans and glass packaging can be returned simply by tipping them into the machine. Several locations across Latvia also have bulk reverse vending machines, which can take up to 100 PET bottles and cans in a single load. These collection points speed up the process considerably and are ideal after holidays or community clean-ups, or for households with larger stockpiles of packaging to return. All collection points and bulk-machine locations can be found on the map on the Depozīta punkts website.