The petition for the end of the “Volta” system, a deposit and refund scheme for packaging, which awaits in parliament “deliberation on its admissibility,” already has more than 37,000 signatures, according to information on the Petição Pública website.
Having been lodged in the parliament on August 15, the petition, demanding from the Government, the Assembly of the Republic and the Portuguese Environment Agency “the immediate suspension of the ‘Volta’ deposit and refund system and its replacement by a transparent, fair, and truly environmental model,” was sent four days later to the Committee on Environment and Energy, according to the AR’s online page.
When it was introduced in the assembly, the citizens’ petition counted 34,211 signatures, with 7,500 needed for a petition to be discussed in plenary.
One month later, nearly three thousand more people signed the complaint, which contends that the system “transfers costs from companies to consumers,” and is also “held responsible for failures it does not control.”
It also notes that there is “a lack of transparency about who profits from the system” and that it “does not meet the announced environmental objective.”
According to the signatories, an environmental system should “reduce waste, increase recycling, promote producer responsibility, be accessible and fair for all,” but the petition adds that the “Volta” system fails in all of these points, creating barriers, costs, and injustices that undermine environmental policy and erode citizens’ trust.
The system, which began operating in April, allows consumers to recover a 10-cent deposit per single-use container, made of plastic, metal, or aluminum, and under three liters, by returning them at the ‘Volta’ points located in mainland Portugal, the Azores and Madeira.
In addition to the “immediate suspension of the Volta system in its current form,” the petition calls for an “independent audit of SDR Portugal’s financial, operational, and environmental model,” an association that “brings together more than two dozen companies from the beverage industry and retail,” which “ensure the management of the Deposit and Refund System (SDR),” the association says on its site.
The public petition “For the End of the Volta System and the Creation of a Fair Packaging Management Model,” whose first signer is João Pontes, “is not affiliated with any Organization or Political Party,” being a “citizens’ initiative for citizens,” the text states.
The Minister of the Environment acknowledged problems in implementing the Volta System on the 1st of last month, notably due to the depositing of packaging in public spaces, assuring that the identified situations are being analyzed and resolved on a case-by-case basis.
“The Volta System […] is a European system that will be mandatory in all European countries, and we were the 18th country to implement it. In all of them, at the outset, there were disruptions, so it is a complex system, but it is very useful for reusing plastic bottles and all kinds of cans,” Maria da Graça Carvalho told reporters in Brussels.
The minister pointed to large events and festivals as some of the first problems detected, considering that the situation has already been resolved, and also mentioned the need to find solutions to prevent people from rummaging through the trash in search of packaging to obtain the corresponding refund.
“We are in a transition process, we hope to solve all the problems,” stated Maria da Graça Carvalho, arguing that it is necessary to reinforce enforcement and involve the municipalities, particularly in the location of collection machines and the monitoring of the system’s operation.
