Trip Report · July 6 – 10, 2026
Vienna &
Bratislava
Circular Policy Expeditionary Summit — Policy Circle, the U.S. Circular Policy Leadership Network, goes inside Europe's newest and most efficient deposit return systems.
In partnership with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) & Reclay Group
Report Overview
Eighth expedition. First European summit since 2023.
From July 6 to 10, 2026, Circle's Policy Circle hosted a multi-stakeholder, immersive expedition through the extended producer responsibility (EPR) and deposit return system (DRS) landscapes of Austria and Slovakia.
Austria and Slovakia offer a unique learning environment because they sit at the intersection of national implementation and European Union waste management and recycling policy frameworks. Austria operates one of Europe's newest national deposit return systems (launched January 2025), while Slovakia runs one of the continent's most operationally efficient (launched 2022) — a rare side-by-side look at how deposit return is designed, launched, and matured. Austria also offers a valuable window into one of Europe's most established packaging EPR systems, and participants went deep on the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which is increasingly shaping producer obligations globally.
Candid conversations with system operators, regulators, producer responsibility organizations, technology providers, recyclers, and municipal leaders uncovered transferable lessons for the U.S. context.
Set on opening night
What legislators came to learn
To center and spur discussions, legislators were asked to share their top learning goal heading into the week's sessions.
How do retailers engage in deposit return in European contexts?
What are stakeholder perspectives of deposit systems and packaging EPR in the European context?
What is the role of municipalities versus the private sector?
Are there material types or recycling technologies in Europe that we can bring to the U.S. context?
Day 1 · Monday, July 6 · Vienna
Arrival and opening reception
Participants arrived in Vienna throughout the day and gathered on the rooftop of the Jaz in the City Hotel for a welcome reception that formally opened the summit — five days of experiential learning, dialogue, and cross-sector exchange across two countries. The Circle team outlined the week ahead and thanked partners NCEL and Reclay Group, and legislators shared the learning goals above to center the week's discussions.
Day 2 · Tuesday, July 7 · Vienna
Deposit return: from U.S. questions to Austrian answers
Expert snapshots opened with a “who is who” of the U.S. recycling refund landscape — recent modernization in Oregon, how the money flows in deposit systems, and the hot topics states wrestle with in bill design: fraud prevention, return-to-retail mandates, redemption technologies, and unredeemed funds.
Participants then received the official system briefing from Austria's not-for-profit central operator, EWP Recycling Pfand Österreich, on a system that launched January 1, 2025. A stakeholder panel dug into real-world decision points: financing deposit technology at retail sites, rolling out consumer education fast, and prioritizing sorting plant upgrades.
U.S. consumers are less willing to stand in line for kiosk returns — bulk drop-off machines keep coming up as the better fit for American contexts.Field note · redemption technology tour
The afternoon rotated through live return points — the TOMRA technology showroom, in-store redemption at HOFER Perchtoldsdorf, and high-volume returns at Metro Vösendorf — giving participants a consumer's-eye view of convenience and a retailer's-eye view of space, labor, and logistics. Legislators with deposit-return experience flagged a key transatlantic difference: return-to-retail mandates aren't universal across the ten U.S. deposit states, and shared return centers are growing.
Day 3 · Wednesday, July 8 · Vienna → Kočovce → Bratislava
Slovakia: a deposit return system at maturity
A rolling expert-led seminar on the bus compared the Austrian and Slovak systems and the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation shaping both. First stop: the Slovak Central Deposit Sorting Facility in Kočovce, with system operators and leadership of the recently established European Deposit Return System Association (EDRSA) — the behind-the-scenes of how returned containers are counted, verified, sorted, and prepared for onward recycling.
After a traditional Slovak lunch beneath Beckov Castle with European system stakeholders, leadership of the Slovak Deposit Return System Administrator debriefed a system that launched in January 2022 and passed a 90-percent return rate within two years, and Sensoneo showed the IT backbone underpinning several European systems — from container registration to real-time logistics coordination.
What is negotiable? Which policy elements matter to which stakeholders? How do you set deadlines — and targets that leave the private sector room to meet them?Field note · legislator-to-legislator EPR discussion
The day turned back across the Atlantic with a U.S. packaging EPR scene-setting and a facilitated conversation with a legislator from a state with an enacted packaging EPR law — lived experience on the road from bill to implementation. A quick stop at a Billa supermarket collection point added a first-hand exchange with retail staff who run a return kiosk as part of daily operations, before dinner along the Danube and a walk through historic Bratislava.
Side by side
Two systems, one border apart
Austria
Newest launch
- DRS launched
- January 2025
- Deposit
- €0.25 — plastic bottles & cans
- Operator
- EWP Recycling Pfand Österreich (not-for-profit)
- Also studied
- One of Europe's most established packaging EPR systems
Slovakia
Operational benchmark
- DRS launched
- January 2022
- Return rate
- 90%+ within two years
- Backbone
- Central sorting at Kočovce + national IT clearing
- Also home to
- EDRSA — the new European association of DRS operators
Day 4 · Thursday, July 9 · Vienna
Packaging EPR: inside Austria's producer responsibility system
The morning went to PreZero's Sollenau sortation facility: recovery, sortation, and pre-processing first-hand, in small groups with facility leadership, while expedition partners scene-set Austrian and European recycling markets, offtake, and end markets.
Cutting-edge sortation that weighs and displays live bale content — LDPE, clear thermoforms, colored rigids — sparked a running comparison of European separation-at-source versus U.S. single-stream, and what that means for U.S. recovery systems.Field note · Sollenau bale floor
In the evening at the Austro-American Society, an evening led by Reclay brought together the stakeholders responsible for Austrian packaging EPR implementation — the association of European PROs and representatives from across the packaging value chain — on material market impacts, the evolving PPWR and Waste Framework Directive, and the recurring theme: balancing regulatory mandates with private-sector flexibility during implementation.
Day 5 · Friday, July 10 · Vienna
Municipal collection with MA48 & closing debrief
Magistratsabteilung 48 (MA48) — Vienna's municipal department for waste management, street cleaning, and fleet management — introduced participants to municipal operations across the city, and how collection and recycling services function under, and alongside, Austria's packaging EPR program.
The expedition closed over lunch at Glacis Beisl: reflections on key insights, answers to the learning goals set on night one, and follow-ups heading into the 2027 legislative sessions.
Legislative leadership
Eleven legislators & senior staff. Eight states.
The delegation spanned states with enacted packaging EPR laws now in implementation and states actively weighing producer responsibility and deposit return legislation.
Participating & partner organizations
All sides of the table
Participation does not suggest that a represented organization is for or against EPR or DRS. As a neutral convener, Circle does not advocate for any particular circular policy approach — Circle is a convening space for discourse and learning, in full compliance with U.S. and EU antitrust and competition laws.
Expedition partners
European hosts & featured organizations
U.S. participating organizations
In the field
Experiential learning & connection in action
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