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ENVIRONMENT

Pant: Everything you need to know about Norway’s bottle recycling system

The Norwegian bottle deposit system, known as pant, promotes recycling and reducing waste. Here's a closer look at how it works and why it's become an integral part of Norwegian culture.

Published: 20 March 2024 15:20 CET
Updated: 28 April 2024 08:28 CEST
Pant machine
Norway's pant system promotes environmental sustainability by giving people a monetary nudge to recycle. Photographed is a pant machine located in a Kiwi store in Bergen, western Norway. Photo by: Robin-Ivan Capar / The Local Norway

If you’ve recently moved to Norway, you’ve likely already spotted bottle and can collection points in most supermarkets.

These drop-off points are integral to Norway’s pant (deposit) system. When consumers buy beverages in plastic bottles and aluminium cans, they pay an additional fee (pant) – typically between one and three kroner – as a deposit.

READ MORE: What you need to know about rubbish and recycling in Norway

This deposit incentivises consumers to return their empty containers for recycling rather than disposing of them as regular waste.

Most people in Norway have a designated bin or bag for storing containers with pant. Once they fill these up, they take them along on their next shopping trip to a grocery store or supermarket.

Bottle recycling in Norway goes back to 1902 when returning bottles to the breweries for the equivalent of 4 kroner. The scheme was later adapted to apply to mineral water. Norway’s wine monopoly would also implement its own scheme, but it ended in 2001. 

In May 1999, the pant flaskepant system as we know it today was introduced by Infinitum (formerly Norsk Resirk A/S). 

Pant machine in use

Returning empty bottles and cans to designated store collection points allows for easy reclaiming of your deposit. Pictured is such a machine in a Kiwi store in Bergen, western Norway. Photo by: Robin-Ivan Capar / The Local Norway

How to use the pant machines

By returning empty bottles and cans to designated collection points in stores, where machines scan and sort the containers, you’ll be able to reclaim your deposit in the form of a voucher or refund corresponding to the value of the pant.

On average, a regular plastic bag from Kiwi or REMA 1000 can hold bottles and cans worth around 100 kroner in pant, so using the voucher on the spot, to pay for part of your groceries is common. 

You’ll usually find the pant machine at the entrance to supermarkets, but in some stores (especially the larger ones), it’ll be located outside – though not too far from the entrance.

Pant machine Red Cross

When depositing bottles and cans into the machine, you’ll have the option to select between two buttons: one grants you a voucher redeemable at the register, while the other allows you to donate the pant to charity and enter a lottery for a chance to win a prize. Photo by: Robin-Ivan Capar / The Local Norway

Pantelotteriet: The deposit lottery

The pant deposit system also offers a unique opportunity for charitable giving.

In some machines, consumers have the option to donate their refund to charity through a lottery system. By simply pressing a button on the machine, you can contribute the total amount, with the chance of winning a prize if selected.

This Pantelotteriet lottery, launched in April 2008, is operated by Norsk Pantelotteri AS, a company jointly owned by the Norwegian Red Cross and the Olav Thon Group. Proceeds from the lottery support the Red Cross’s initiatives.

Participation is available across over 2,000 stores, including major chains like REMA 1000, Kiwi, Meny, and SPAR, as well as select outlets in the Matkroken, Europris, and Coop Norge chains.

Conceived by Olav Thon, the lottery aims to boost the recycling of cans and bottles while providing consistent funding for charitable causes.

Prizes up to 1,000 kroner are typically paid out in cash.

Pant lottery

This is what a losing pant lottery ticket looks like. Photo by: Robin-Ivan Capar / The Local Norway

A sustainability effort

Norway’s pant system promotes environmental sustainability by giving people a monetary nudge to recycle and reduce the amount of plastic and aluminium waste.

It also has a social element, as it serves as a source of income for those experiencing financial hardship, who can collect and return bottles and cans (it’s not uncommon to see people collecting these containers from public spaces, such as parks or streets, to return them for pant).

Furthermore, the system also fosters a broader culture of environmental consciousness among Norwegians, even if the country is western Europe’s largest producer of oil and gas.

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BUSINESS

Dying salmon worry Norway’s giant fish-farm industry

They are hailed for their omega-3 fatty acids and micronutrients, but Norway's salmon are not in the best of health themselves at the fish farms where they are bred.

Published: 30 April 2024 15:04 CEST
Dying salmon worry Norway's giant fish-farm industry

Almost 63 million salmon — a record — died prematurely last year in the large underwater sea pens that dot the fjords of Norway, the world’s biggest producer of Atlantic salmon.

That represents a mortality rate of 16.7 percent, also a record high and a number that has gradually risen over the years — posing an economic and an ethical problem to producers.

The salmon succumb to illnesses of the pancreas, gills or heart, or to injuries suffered during the removal of sea lice parasites.

“The death of animals is a waste of life and resources,” Edgar Brun, director of Aquatic Animal Health and Welfare at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, told AFP. “We also have a moral and ethical responsibility to guarantee them the best possible conditions.”

Norway’s salmon exports exceeded $11 billion last year, with the 1.2 million tonnes sold representing the equivalent of 16 million meals per day.

The 63 million prematurely dead salmon represent almost $2 billion in lost income for the industry.

Not so appetising

Salmon that die prematurely are usually turned into animal feed or biofuel.

But according to Norwegian media, some fish that are in dire health at the time of slaughter, or even already dead, do sometimes end up on dinner plates, occasionally even sent off with a label marked “superior”.

“I see fish on sale that I myself would not eat,” a former head of quality control at a salmon slaughterhouse, Laila Sele Navikauskas, told public broadcaster NRK in November.

Eating those salmon poses no danger to human health, experts say.

“The pathogens that cause these illnesses in the salmon cannot be passed on to humans,” Brun explained.

But the revelations damage the salmon’s precious image.

“If you buy meat in a store, you expect it to come from an animal that was slaughtered in line with regulations and not one that was lying dead outside the barn,” said Trygve Poppe, a specialist in fish health. “Otherwise, as a consumer you feel tricked.”

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority said it observed anomalies at half of the fish farms inspected last year, noting that, among other things, injured or deformed fish had been exported in violation of Norwegian regulations.

In order to maintain its strong reputation, only salmon of ordinary or superior quality is authorised for export.

The lower quality fish — which accounts for a growing share of stocks, up to a third last winter — can only be sold abroad after it has been transformed, into fillets for example.

Matter of trust

Robert Eriksson, head of the Norwegian Seafood Association which represents small producers — generally considered less at fault — said the irregularities reported at some breeders were “totally unacceptable”.

“We live off of trust,” he said.

Taking shortcuts means “you get punished by the market and the economic impact is much bigger than the few extra kilos you sold.”

The Norwegian Seafood Federation — representing the biggest fish farming companies, those most often singled out over quality — insists it is addressing the matter but says more time is needed.

“On average, it takes three years to breed a salmon,” said the body’s director, Geir Ove Ystmark.

“So it’s very difficult to see immediate results today, even though we have launched a series of initiatives and measures.”

It is precisely the speed at which the fish are bred that is the problem, according to fish health specialist Poppe, who criticised the “terribly bad animal conditions” and who has stopped eating farmed salmon.

“The salmon are subjected to stress their entire lives, from the time they hatch in fresh water until their slaughter,” said Poppe.

“For example, during the first phase in fresh water, the light and temperature is manipulated so they’ll grow as quickly as possible,” he explained.

“In the wild, this phase takes two to six years. When they’re bred, it takes six months to a year.”

New technology

Truls Gulowsen, head of Friends of the Earth Norway, said recent years’ higher mortality rates were the result of aggressive industrialisation.

“We have bred a farmed fish that has poor chances of survival and which is dying from a combination of stress and bad genes because it’s been bred to grow as fast as possible and subjected to a major change in diet.”

The Norwegian Seafood Association aims to halve the mortality rate by 2030, and industry giant Salmar has allocated $45 million to tackle the issue.

Among the frequently mentioned possibilities are greater spacing between fish farms, and new technology, including so-called closed facilities.

The latter, where sea water is filtered, would help prevent sea lice but are more costly.

The government insists it is up to fish farms to respect the rules.

“Not all producers have the same mortality rates, so it is possible to reduce them,” said Even Tronstad Sagebakken, a state secretary at the fisheries ministry.

In the meantime, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority says it has not yet received any reports of salmon not fit for export being sold abroad.

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