DRS and EPR all over Europe soon - Opportunity or trouble for retailers?

In order to comply with the recycling rates introduced by the EU from 2025, solutions for taking back and recycling beverage packaging are being prepared in almost all European countries. This can be achieved most effectively by a closed deposit return scheme (DRS) or an extended producer responsibility (EPR). But what characterizes these two approaches and how do they affect the retail sector? In this context, the opportunities and challenges for retailers that must take back packages will be addressed. In addition to automated return solutions via reverse vending machines, the manual return of containers, e.g. in smaller shops, will also be discussed.