by Suomen palautuspakkaus Oy (abbr. Palpa), which is a private consortium of beverage importers and manufacturers. In 2016, aluminum cans were recovered at a rate of 96%, PET bottles 92%, and one-way glass 88%. The deposit values for these containers are as follows: Plastic <0.35 L: €0.10 Plastic 0.35–1 L: €0.20 Plastic >1 L: €0.40 Metal: €0.15 Glass: €0.10 The scheme is, in technical sense, voluntary and Palpa does not hold a legal monopoly for container deposits systems. Lidl has its own levy system for Lidl bottles. Those beverage containers that do not belong to a container deposit system are levied an excise tax of €0.51/L, regardless of the container size. The tax is so high that essentially all beverage manufacturers and importers opt to join the Palpa system instead of paying the excise tax. Germany In Germany, the deposit legislation covers plastic, aluminum, and glass containers for water, beer, mixed drinks containing beer, carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks including fruit juices, as well as mixed alcoholic drinks. Excluded from the programme are containers for milk products, wine, spirits, liquors, and certain dietary drinks. Also excluded are containers smaller than 100 mL and larger than 3 L. Germany was noted in 2012 as one of the few countries that included plastic bottles in its schemes. There is separate legislation (known as Einwegpfand or single use deposit) for non-reusable containers, mostly thin plastic bottles and aluminium cans, distinct from (Mehrwegpfand reusable deposit) for reusable containers, mostly glass and thicker plastic. Legislation for an Einwegpfand (single use) deposit system was created in 2002 and came into force on 1 January 2003. However, its implementation was fought by lobby groups of German bottling industry and retailers. This fight also included trials at the Federal Administrative Court of Germany and the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, but all trials were won by the German federal government. The deposit charge for Einwegpfand containers is required to be relatively high. As of October 2016, the standard deposit for these is €0.25. By comparison, the deposit for reusable containers (mostly glass bottles) is usually between 8 and 15 cents. The usual rates are locally €0.02 for some wine bottles, €0.08 for beer bottles up to 0.5 L, and €0.15 for beer bottles with flip-top closures, beer bottles over 0.5 L and other bottles (mostly water and soft-drinks, lesser fruit drinks, milk, cream, yoghurt). Some bottles have an