Overview
- Paweł Mej returned 11,218 bottles and cans at a Bochnia reverse‑vending machine on Thursday, Sept. 17, spending about ten hours on the task and receiving 5,609 złoty.
- Mej said he will donate fixed sums to the local fire brigade and a women's committee and buy sports balls for a school while keeping roughly 4,000 złoty for living costs, and he said his campaign will continue to raise money for a fire truck.
- Poland introduced a national deposit-return scheme in October 2025 with refunds of 0.50 złoty for plastic bottles and cans and 1 złoty for reusable glass, creating the payment flows that make large collections possible.
- Retail pilots are testing deposit-style returns beyond drinks, with Kaufland and start-up reo running a cosmetic-packaging take-back trial in selected Munich and Heilbronn-area stores that cleans and refills returned bottles.
- Environmental groups warn of persistent 'Pfandschlupf' where unreturned or rejected containers leave large unclaimed sums with retailers and producers, a leak that Nabu estimated at €3.5 billion between 2003 and 2015 and that could shape policy and retail practice going forward.