Legal provisions:

Article 50(1) states that ‘by 1 January 2029, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the separate collection of at least 90 % per year by weight of the following packaging formats made available on the market for the first time in that Member State in a given calendar year: (a) single-use plastic beverage bottles with a capacity of up to three litres; and (b) single-use metal beverage containers with a capacity of up to three litres’. Article 50(2) establishes that ‘in order to achieve the targets set out in paragraph 1, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that deposit and return systems are set up for the relevant packaging formats referred to in paragraph 1 and that a deposit is charged at the point of sale’. Article 50(5) states that ‘Member States may be exempt from the obligation under paragraph 2 if: the rate of separate collection as required under Article 48 of the relevant packaging format as submitted to the Commission under Article 56(1), point (c), is 80 % or more by weight of such packaging made available on the territory of that Member State for the first time in the calendar year 2026; and by 1 January 2028, the Member State notifies the Commission of its request for exemption and submits an implementation plan showing a strategy with concrete measures, including their timeline, that ensure achievement of the 90 % separate collection rate by weight of the packaging referred to in paragraph. It is further specified, that for the purposes of point (a), where the information on the rate of separate collection of the relevant packaging format has not yet been submitted to the Commission, the Member State shall provide a reasoned explanation as to how the conditions for the exemption set out in this paragraph are otherwise fulfilled. The reasoned explanation shall be based on validated national data and include a description of the measures implemented’.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.