Four things you may not know about plastic bottles

1. Every returned bottle is recycled

Infinitum recycles every plastic bottle that is returned. The bottles are compressed, washed and melted down to form granules (tiny pellets). Infinitum is working to ensure that all the bottles are turned into new bottles, so that we can reuse the plastic over and over again.

2. Easy to transport, easy to melt down

All the beverage bottles on sale with a deposit-return label are made from PET or HDPE. Glass bottles are often used for some kinds of products, like wine. The problem with glass bottles is that they are a lot heavier and therefore require a lot more energy to transport. Melting glass is also much more energy-intensive than recycling plastic. All in all, therefore, plastic is more resource-efficient and better for the environment. Norway’s government-licensed wine and spirits retailer, Vinmonopolet, is one of the companies that are shifting to more environment-friendly packaging. Hundreds of its products now come in plastic bottles and aluminium cans that can be recycled via the ordinary deposit-return system.

3. Safe to drink from

Plastic comes in many different forms. The deposit-return bottles on sale in Norway are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). PET is a light and mouldable material that is well suited for beverage bottles, particularly since it does not transfer any harmful substances to the bottle’s contents. Extensive research has documented that PET bottles are completely safe to drink from. They meet the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s stringent requirements.

4. Norwegians are world leaders for recycling bottles and cans

You may know this already, but Norwegians lead the world when it comes to returning their bottles and cans. Sadly, other countries don’t have a deposit-return system as efficient as ours. That is why we still find foreign bottles washed up on Norwegian beaches. Every week, international delegations arrive in Norway to learn how they can create an equally good deposit-return system in their own countries.

Over 92% of all the bottles and cans sold in Norway are part of the deposit-return scheme, and we collect almost 100% of those. Infinitum is constantly setting new world records.