Impact
The implementation of the DRS in Portugal improves the quality of recycled materials, supports the achievement of environmental targets, and introduces technological solutions that strengthen circularity, sustainability, and innovation across the entire beverage packaging materials management chain.
1
Circularity
As an exclusive stream for beverage containers, the DRS enables higher-quality recycling due to the low level of contaminants, improving material recyclability and contributing to the circular use of raw materials.
Can
to can.
Bottle
to bottle.
2
Sustainability
The DRS ensures the efficient and effective collection and treatment of single-use beverage containers to support the achievement of the country’s sustainability goals.
Reduction of contaminants
Estimated decrease between 18% and 26%.
Reduction in operational and logistical costs
Process optimisation with a direct impact on economic efficiency.
Prevention of marine litter
Mitigation of the impact of waste in the marine environment.
Recycled plastic packaging
SDR Portugal more than doubles the amount of high-quality recovered plastic packaging, creating an opportunity to invest in doubling national recycling capacity.
Littering reduction
A reduction of 30% to 40% in overall littering and 70% to 90% in beverage container littering is expected, translating into annual savings of 20 to 40 million euros in cleaning costs in Portugal.
+1,500 jobs
SDR Portugal estimates the creation of over 1,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Operational and logistical cost reduction
The reduction of operational and logistics costs for municipalities and waste management entities (SGRU) is estimated between 9 and 20 million euros.
Source: Study conducted by 3drivers for SDR Portugal (2022).
3
Innovation
SDR Portugal presents a technologically innovative solution that delivers clear benefits for the sector, citizen-consumers, and the environment.
Economic Ecosystem
SDR can and should drive an economic ecosystem in the areas of materials engineering, particularly in plastic and aluminum recycling, information technologies, data management, and safety and reliability systems.
Collection network
Direct investments in SDR Portugal are estimated at over 90 million euros annually until 2029, ensuring a collection network comprising 2,800 food retail stores, 12,000 traditional stores and 80,000 HORECA establishments.
The infrastructure includes 2,500 automatic collection machines (RVMs) and more than 8,000 manual collection points, supported by 50 SDR Portugal Kiosks and 2 Counting and Sorting Centers in Lisbon and Porto.