By Porter Lang
Walk into a German supermarket and you will meet the machine before you reach the shelves. It is built into the wall near the door. It takes bottles and cans, scans them, and prints a slip.
That is Pfand, the deposit. Here is how the system works, in outline.
What the machine does
German Wikipedia says deposit containers carry the DPG logo, in a special colour, with a barcode beneath it. The machine reads the pair. It scans the GTIN, the product’s article number, and then crushes the container, mainly to prevent fraud. The English article says the machine prints a receipt that can be redeemed for cash or future purchases, and that about 80 per cent of collection is automated, mostly through reverse vending machines in supermarkets, with about 20 per cent done by hand.
Check the label before you buy. If it shows a deposit mark, ask at the till or look at the shelf label for the amount. We say nothing about bottles bought abroad.
What kind of sources these are
Two Wikipedia articles, one in English and one in German. Their authors cite federal court rulings, associations and press reports. We have not seen those originals, and neither article gives the deposit for reusable bottles in a single number. That is why we left amounts out.
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Roam first. Shop later.