Do wholesalers also need to collect bottles and cans?

Anyone who sells drinks in cans or single-use plastic bottles directly to consumers from 2025 onwards must also collect these containers and is thus a collector. Consequently, this also applies to wholesale partners if these act as final distributors, as can be the case for cash & carry markets, for example. If the wholesale partner only sells to resellers, it is not a final distributor and is therefore not required to collect containers as well.  

Caution: A restaurant operator can also be an end consumer. This is the case when drinks are served in glasses (e.g. for the mixing of drinks or serving in glasses) and the containers are not placed on the market. The chain ends here with the restaurant operator, who is therefore an end consumer.

In this case, we recommend that the restaurant operator registers as a manual collector (see manual collection) and has the empty containers collected in the sealable collection bags provided.