Return a beer bottle without a receipt in the Carrefour Polska stores

Kompania Piwowarska joined the initiative of Carrefour Polska run under the “Road to Zero Waste” slogan. As part of this cooperation, in all 250 Carrefour hyper and supermarkets across the country, it will be possible to return a returnable bottle from the beer producer without a receipt. In return, a salesperson will issue an e-voucher, constituting a full refund of the deposit. A reusable returnable bottle is one of the most eco-friendly types of packaging. 

One of the barriers in the development of circular economy and a deposit system for returnable packaging in Poland is the requirement to present a proof of purchase (a receipt). Such a practice is applied by most stores, which do not accept bottles that were not sold by them. Starting from April 22, in all Carrefour hyper and supermarkets, it will be possible to return Kompania Piwowarska’s returnable beer bottles without a receipt. For each returned bottle, a customer will receive a full refund of the deposit in the form of an e-voucher that can be used to pay for shopping across the Carrefour chain. The deposit amounts to 50 groszy. The stores accept returnable bottles of the following Kompania Piwowarska’s beers: Lech, Tyskie, Żubr, Książęce, Kozel, Dębowe Dojrzałe Mocne and Wojak.

The chain is already planning, in cooperation with its franchisees, to include the whole chain of local Carrefour Express and Globi stores in the campaign.  

Kompania Piwowarska – providing strong support for the project – is one of the Polish companies that have been prioritizing sustainable development for years. The company’s comprehensive “Better Future 2030” strategy focuses on four areas, two out of which – Planet and People – are directly connected to sustainable development. As part of its activity within the Planet area, the company has committed to significantly reduce the CO₂ emissions generated by its business, both in its breweries and across the whole supply chain, and to only use fully reusable and recyclable packaging by 2030. In 2020, Kompania Piwowarska sold 46% of its beer in reusable packaging – 44% in returnable bottles and 2% in KEGS used in the On Premise channel.

– Before the pandemic, we had launched a pilot bottle redemption centre in Poznań, which allowed us to better understand the barriers hindering the development of the reusable packaging market in Poland, the most important one being VAT and deposits. The cooperation with Carrefour Polska is another step that should encourage Poles to actively reduce the amount of generated glass waste. The most important thing for us is to increase the number of bottle rotations. A returnable bottle can be used even 20 times, before it is recycled. The higher the number of rotations, the lower the emission of greenhouse gas related to delivering beer to the market. Therefore, proper usage of returnable bottles, meaning returning them to stores, so they can be refilled and reintroduced, is beneficial for the environment – says Grzegorz Adamski, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development Manager at Kompania Piwowarska.

Kompania Piwowarska has approx. 300 m bottles, which on average return to the beer market about 4 times a year. The bottle circulation system developed by the company has a high 90% efficiency rate. Moreover, the company exchanges empty glass packaging that accidentally ended up at the wrong recipients with other breweries. 

– As a socially responsible company executing its commercial mission, Carrefour Polska actively supports pro-environmental activities in our country. Implementation of the initiative based on returnable bottle redemption without a receipt is an important step towards the development of a deposit system for returnable packaging in Poland. We have managed to implement it thanks to close cooperation with our suppliers. We hope that from now on, instead of throwing returnable bottles into glass containers, all Poles will start bringing them to Carrefour stores, which will be beneficial not only for them, but also for our planet – says Marek Lipka, Commercial Director and Member of the Board at Carrefour Polska.