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Refundable deposit system for recycling to include juice bottles

Christian Wenande
June 27th, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

New ‘pant’ rules to come into effect in 2020

Juice packaging to bring 5 percent more deposits in (photo: Dansk Retursystem)

The government has expanded the refundable deposit system for recycling to include juice bottles in the future.

The new rules, which will come into effect on 1 January 2020, are the first expansion of the Danish ‘pant’ system’, as it is known locally, since 2008.

“Out pant system is a fantastic invention that inspires other countries and the citizens have great faith in the system, which has been expanded numerous times,” said the food minister, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.

“Now we’ll do it again because it makes sense that consumers can return their juice bottles at the same place they hand in their soft drink cans. It also leads to better recycling because the bottles can be used for new food product packaging.”

READ MORE: ‘Pant’s down, the best May ever

52 million more deposits
More specifically, the expansion will encompass juice and ‘saft’ (concentrates that need mixing with water) products in packaging of plastic, glass and metal.

It is expected that the expansion will lead to an additional 52 million bottles and cans being deposited – an increase of about 4-5 percent.

As of now, the pant system covers beer, soft drinks, water, iced tea, cider, alcoholic soft drinks, energy drinks and lemonade.

The deposits returned from juice packaging will be on a par with current products – 1 kr for glass bottles and cans under a litre, 1.5 kr for plastic bottles under a litre and 3 kr for packaging from 1-20 litres.

The new rules won’t be phased in until 2020 because supermarkets require time to sell off existing stocks of juice packaging, while the bottle dispensary machines will need to be upgraded to receive juice bottles.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”