The story of a deposit system for a circular economy

20 years of producer responsibility across sectors

Dansk Retursystem is a circular company that came into being via strong partnerships and in close cooperation between public and private business sectors. We would like to tell the story of how it all began and how the company has settled into its current shape. Hoping to inspire others, we would also like to share some of the challenges that we encountered along the way, as well as the solutions we found.

“Establishing Dansk Retursystem is the thing that I’m most proud of having accomplished in my entire career. It is one of the largest CSR projects in the Danish business sector and an example of how companies take responsibility – and of the necessity of broad political support and cooperation. Something was created as a solution to challenges we were facing. It was an evolutionary project of huge dimensions. From a societal perspective it was exactly the right thing to do. And by involving everybody in the process, by being patient and by trying to understand each other’s agendas, we found a common solution,” says John Wagner, managing director of the trade association for Danish grocers – who is one of several contributors to the story of Dansk Retursystem.