Mattoni: Iconic Czech mineral water brand’s first aluminium can in 150 years comes with a three-crown deposit

Iconic Czech mineral water company Mattoni is now offering mineral water in refundable cans. This is the first in the 150-year history of the company, Mattoni product sold in aluminium can.

The scheme is available through online Czech supermarket Košík.cz and follows a similar system to their PET water bottles.

Since January this year, Košík has been selling Mattoni mineral water in refundable PET bottles.

Through the new program, half-litre cans of Mattoni's lemon-flavoured sparkling water can be purchased on Košík.cz for 19.90 CZK, and it comes with an additional 3 CZK deposit. The cans may later be returned through a Košík.cz pickup, with customers refunded the 3 CZK deposit.

Alessandro Pasquale, CEO, Mattoni said: "Our goal is for significantly more cans to be recycled in the Czech Republic than are now.”

"Deposits are an ideal way to increase the recycling rate."

The cans must be returned through a Košík.cz courier undamaged, so that they may be easily identified to be eligible for the 3 CZK refund.

 However, some people have questioned whether the costs of this outweigh the benefits. They argue that having trucks driving around to pick up and deposit cans are damaging to the environment and recycling the cans is not enough to counteract that.

In response, Tomáš Jeřábek, Head, Košík.cz stated: “It looks uncomfortable, illogical, and uneconomical, but the opposite is true.”

He references the PET bottle recycling scheme, which he claims has the support of 70% of customers.

Adding a deposit price to plastic PET bottles is currently not mandatory in the Czech Republic after the Chamber of Deputies rejected the Czech Packaging Act.