Daniela Tavera on deposit refund systems, the Kosovo project, and why the planning phase is where governments win or lose.
This is the first in a series we’re calling 10 Years. 10 Lessons Nobody Warned Us About – where BFS team members share what they actually learned from their hardest projects.
- Deposit refund systems (DRS) achieve 85–90% collection rates for beverage containers — but most fail in emerging markets because governments underestimate the planning phase.
- BlackForest Solutions consultant Daniela Tavera has worked on DRS projects in Kosovo, Uruguay, Cape Verde, and Belize — this is what she learned.
- The Kosovo project ran numerous capacity-building sessions and 10 private sector roundtables over two years — and produced a 100-page, investor-ready business model from industry.
- The #1 failure mode: producers feel blindsided by regulation and fight the system. Early engagement prevents this entirely.
- This is the first post in the BFS ’10 Years. 10 Lessons’ series — marking 10 years of BlackForest Solutions.
85%Collection rate in well-run DRS programmes |
4Countries: Kosovo, Uruguay, Cape Verde, Belize |
3–4 YrsKosovo project duration with BFS involvement |
~100 PagesIndustry-submitted business model — a direct result of BFS’s engagement strategy |
Daniela, you’ve worked on deposit refund systems across four countries. What makes DRS so appealing to governments – and so difficult to actually pull off?
Deposit refund systems are one of the most effective tools we have for collecting beverage containers. The numbers speak for themselves—countries that run them well hit 85% per cent collection rates. And beverage containers are among the most visible pollutants out there. So governments see DRS and think: we want that.
The problem is that DRS is a nationwide system. It touches the government, producers, retailers, waste operators, municipalities, consumers. A huge number of stakeholders need to move in the same direction at the same time. And what I’ve seen repeatedly – across Kosovo, Uruguay, Cape Verde, Belize – is that governments underestimate how complex that coordination really is. They don’t give it enough time. And that’s where things start to break.
You’ve said the planning phase “makes or breaks” the system. What does that actually mean in practice?
It means everything. The planning phase is where you do the feasibility study. You research the market—how many bottles are placed on the market, how big the system needs to be. You build capacity with stakeholders who have often never heard of DRS. You design the business model specific to the country. You draft the legal provisions. You build an implementation plan.
But the part most people underestimate? Communication. Specifically, communication with the private sector. Because ultimately, the producers and retailers are the ones who will run the system. They will form the PRO – the producer responsibility organisation – and manage operations. If they feel surprised, excluded, or poorly informed during the planning phase, they will push back hard during execution. They’ll lobby against it, delay it, and try to water it down. I’ve seen this pattern in multiple countries.
Can you walk us through how this played out on the Kosovo project?
Kosovo was the most comprehensive deposit refund systems (DRS) project I’ve worked on. We started in late 2020 and were involved for about three to four years across two phases. Our expert from Finland was very clear from the beginning: the two priorities are system design and stakeholder communication. Both are equally important.
So we invested heavily. The first two years were almost entirely planning—introduction sessions, roundtables, one-on-one meetings with key industry players. We ran many capacity-building sessions dedicated purely to private sector engagement. We sat down individually with some of the leading global beverage companies operating in Kosovo. The goal was to understand their concerns early and design a system they would consider fair.
When the government eventually launched the call for the private sector to organise themselves and build the system, the response was remarkable. The major companies coordinated effectively. They formed a single representative body, brought in international experts, and submitted a business model that was genuinely impressive—roughly 100 pages, thoroughly researched, and completely viable. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happened because we had spent years building trust before that moment arrived.
That’s a striking contrast to what happens in other countries. What goes wrong when that planning investment isn’t made?
In some countries, the process drags on for a decade because the private sector is fundamentally opposed. If the first time producers hear about DRS is when the government publishes a regulation and tells them to comply, they will fight it. It becomes adversarial. And once you’re in that dynamic, everything takes three times longer and costs three times more.
The communication plan has to be a core workstream of your project – not an afterthought. That means written strategies for how you will engage each stakeholder group. It means roundtables to hear concerns early. It means one-on-one sessions with the biggest players. This is not optional. It’s the infrastructure that holds the whole system together.
What makes BFS particularly suited to this kind of work?
Most of the existing deposit refund systems (DRS) knowledge base comes from developed countries – the Nordics, Germany, the Baltics. But the countries we work with are emerging economies where the institutional environment is different, the private sector dynamics are different, and you can’t just copy-paste a Finnish model. Our edge is that we combine world-class technical advisors with a deep understanding of how things actually work on the ground in these contexts. We know how to navigate the messiness.
“DRS succeeds when governments invest heavily in the planning phase—especially communication. Early stakeholder alignment prevents late opposition and protects the timeline.”
— Daniela Tavera, BFS Technical Consultant
About the series:
BlackForest Solutions turned 10 in March 2026. Instead of a celebration, we asked 10 team members to share the hardest lesson from their hardest project. This is what a decade of doing the work actually looks like.
About Daniela Tavera:
Daniela Tavera is a Technical Consultant at BlackForest Solutions GmbH, specialising in deposit refund system design and implementation across emerging markets. She has led or contributed to DRS feasibility and design projects in Kosovo, Uruguay, Cape Verde, and Belize. Her work focuses on business model design, stakeholder engagement strategy, and private sector coordination for producer responsibility programmes.
Project at a Glance:
| Kosovo DRS Project | Project at a Glance |
| Duration | Late 2020 – 2024 (approx. 3–4 years, 2 phases) |
| Client / Partner | Government of Kosovo |
| Implementing Firm | BlackForest Solutions GmbH (BFS) |
| Key Expert | Finnish DRS specialist |
| Capacity Sessions | ~13 capacity-building sessions |
| Private Sector Sessions | ~10 dedicated industry engagement sessions |
| Outcome | Industry submitted a 100-page, viable DRS business model |
| Scope | System design, stakeholder communication, private sector coordination |
DRS — ‘Deposit Refund System (DRS), a policy instrument that adds a surcharge on beverage containers at point of sale, refunded when the empty container is returned’
PRO — ‘Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), a collective body set up by producers to manage DRS operations on their behalf’
EPR — ‘Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a policy framework making producers responsible for the end-of-life management of the products they sell’
Frequently Asked Questions: Deposit Refund Systems in Emerging Markets
Q1. What is a deposit refund system (DRS) and how does it work?
A DRS adds a small surcharge to beverage containers at point of sale, refunded to the consumer when the empty container is returned to a designated collection point. It creates a financial incentive for return, which is why well-run systems consistently achieve 85–90% collection rates for bottles and cans.
Q2. Why do deposit return systems fail in developing and emerging market countries?
The most common failure mode is not technical — it’s political. When governments introduce DRS regulation without adequately engaging producers and retailers first, the private sector pushes back, lobbies for delays, and the system stalls. The planning phase, particularly stakeholder communication, is where most emerging market DRS projects win or lose.
Q3. How long does it take to implement a deposit refund system?
A credibly designed DRS takes four years from feasibility study to operational launch — longer in emerging markets where institutional capacity needs to be built alongside the system itself. Countries that rush this timeline typically face industry opposition and legislative delays that end up costing more time, not less.
Q4. What is a Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) in a DRS context?
A PRO (Producer Responsibility Organisation) is a collective body formed by beverage producers and importers to manage DRS operations on their behalf — handling container collection logistics, deposit accounting, and system financing. In Kosovo, the private sector’s ability to form a single representative PRO was a direct result of BFS’s two-year stakeholder engagement programme. (However it was not really formed at the end).
Q5. What does the planning phase of a DRS actually involve?
The planning phase covers five core workstreams: market feasibility research (volumes, container types, infrastructure), business model design, legal and regulatory framework drafting, stakeholder capacity building, and — critically — a structured private sector communication strategy. Skipping or compressing any of these creates execution risk that compounds during rollout.
Q6. How do you engage the private sector in deposit return system design?
Effective private sector engagement requires starting early, communicating often, and listening before designing. This means one-on-one sessions with major producers, industry roundtables to surface concerns, and written engagement strategies for each stakeholder group. The goal is not to sell the system — it is to co-design it so that producers feel ownership, not obligation.
Q7. What makes BFS different from other DRS advisory firms?
Most DRS expertise originates in Northern Europe — the Nordics, Germany, the Baltics — where institutional environments, retail density, and private sector maturity are very different from emerging markets. BlackForest Solutions GmbH combines world-class technical advisors with on-the-ground experience in contexts where systems cannot simply be copy-pasted from a Finnish model. That gap between knowing what works and knowing how to make it work in a given country is where BFS operates.