According to recent reports, the Danish non-profit recycling system, pant, has been enormously successful – 93 percent of all bottles and cans under the scheme now find their way back to recycling centres.

However, as successful as the system has proven, it’s far from free.

Danes still pay an indirect cost of 17 øre for every bottle or can they ‘purchase’ – and they’re also losing out on roughly 100 million kroner every year due to the returnables ending up in the regular rubbish, reports DR.

Pant, a tax added to the cost of the beverages in the shops, can be reclaimed by disposing of the containers at designated machines, which are most often located in supermarkets.

In total, Danes receive back an estimated 1.5 billion kroner in pant every year – some of which is immediately donated to charity.