When you are a solo expat trying to navigate life in Germany by yourself even the simplest tasks seem overwhelming and difficult especially when they are nothing like what you do ‘back home’. Recycling bottles was one of these scary tasks for me when I first moved here. Therefore, I thought I would write a step-by-step guide for all you new solo expats to take the fear out of recycling your bottles for the first time.
1. When you are about to head out to the supermarket to do your weekly shopping gather up all the empty plastic and glass bottles and soft drink cans you have brought throughout the week and kept waiting to recycle them. It doesn’t matter where in Germany you have brought your bottle or can, they can all be recycled at your local supermarket.
2. Look for the odd looking machine below. You will most likely find it near the entrance to the supermarket, although some places have them inside the actual supermarket.
3. Put your bottles and cans into the round hole at the top bottom first. For a faster bottle recycling experience, make sure the barcode is facing upwards.
4. Keep putting in all your bottles one after the other until your bag is empty and then press the green button next to the other circular hole. This will print your receipt.
5. Keep your receipt! The amount at the bottom is the cash you get back from recycling your bottles. This is based on the Pfand (deposit) you paid when you brought your bottle. Most 500mL bottles of soft drink carry a 15c deposit, whilst the 1.5l ones carry a 25c deposit.
6. When going through the checkout when purchasing your groceries hand this receipt to the cashier and you will get the amount of the receipt deducted from your bill. If you don’t have anything to buy, you can just hand your receipt to the cashier and get the money back.
Recycling bottles in Germany is quite a unique process, but hopefully the above guide will take all the fear and uncertainty out of your first recycling experience and you’ll be able to to do it like you have been recycling bottles this way for years.
Hilarious! The Germans are ingenious.
It’s important to note that only bottles, cans, and jars with the Pfand symbol on the label can be taken in for deposit return. Wine bottles and some juice bottles and of course bottled drinks that come from another country don’t go for deposit return and have to go in the proper recycling bins. Some shops also don’t use the machines. In my local Kaufland you bring them to the Leergut point, your various bottles are counted, a receipt is given and you put the Mehrwegflaschen away in their designated sections yourself. More work for you but the line moves faster and there’s no machine to break down! :)
Excellent overview of a very important part of daily life in Germany!
I had no idea there were places that recycle bottles manually. I have only ever seen the machines. Interesting to know that.
Also good point about not being able to recycle wine bottles in the machines.
We also have an old-fashioned Rewe without a machine. The clerk at the “Getränkemarkt” (bottle shop?) counts the plastic bottles and throws them into a cardboard box and rings up the deposit.
And just to confuse matters, there are *some* wine bottles (I’ve seen organic wine in 1 liter bottles in plastic cases of 6) that carry a deposit.
That Kaufland used to have the machines – two of them – but the lines could get so long, the einwegflaschen had to be cleaned out all the time and they’d go out of order. They switched to the current system and it works better because the employees don’t break. :)
Love your step-by-step guide. Though the last time I went to the grocery store, the machine was broken so I had to hand them over manually. It is great how efficient the recycling is, though – love it!
I know I’m probably really weird, but I always enjoy putting the bottles in and getting money back. The carrying them to the store, not so much…but for some reason getting the pfand back is a fun little game
I’m glad I’m not the only one that finds recycling bottles so much fun. It’s my favourite environmental activity.
So what’s the difference between Einweg and Mehrweg again? :-)
Well eingweg is disposable and mehrweg is reusable but what makes one plastic bottle reusable and the other disposable, I have no idea.
I love these; we call ‘em “Crunch Crunch Crunch Machines.” I’ve seen all three versions though- the Kaufland around the corner has no machines, just a person to count ‘em up. And the machines in the Globus will take glass bottles as well, which still kind of blows my mind.