How much deposit is there on a crate of beer?

Nederlandse Brouwers sets the deposit on the BNR bottle at 10 euro cents per bottle.

The BNR is the brown Dutch returnable bottle, a refillable pool bottle of 30 or 50 centilitres that many breweries share. A crate of 24 of those bottles therefore contains 2.40 euros in bottle deposit. You only get that amount back if the bottles are in a crate for BNR bottles, are not damaged or dirty and are properly sorted. No deposit is paid out for other bottles mixed in with the BNR bottles.

The law only regulates deposits on plastic drinks bottles and metal drinks packaging, not on glass and not on plastic crates.

Articles 12 and 13 of the Packaging Management Decree 2014 impose a deposit obligation on producers and importers of plastic drinks bottles and metal drinks packaging of up to 3 litres. Article 14 provides that the minimum amount of the deposit is set by ministerial regulation. Glass falls outside this: that system is maintained by the bottlers themselves. What you pay for the crate is set by the brewer or the shop itself. The crate is usually listed separately on the receipt.

A can of beer carries a 15 cent deposit, and has done since 1 April 2023.

The deposit obligation applies to metal drinks packaging of up to 3 litres. You can recognise a deposit can by the deposit logo and the matching barcode on the packaging. You can return them at supermarkets and at thousands of other collection points, such as stations, petrol stations and sports clubs. Different amounts apply to plastic bottles: 15 cents on bottles under 1 litre, since 1 July 2021, and 25 cents on bottles of 1 litre or more.

An empty crate only gets you the crate amount, not the bottle deposit of 10 cents per bottle.

Bottle of en krat zijn twee losse bedragen die u ook los terugkrijgt. Levert u een krat in met minder dan 24 flesjes, dan ontvangt u het kratbedrag plus 10 cent per teruggebrachte BNR-fles. Zitten er andere flesjes in dan BNR-flessen, dan tellen die niet mee. Nederlandse Brouwers meet met een steekproefcontrole hoeveel vreemde flessen er in geretourneerde kratten zitten en betaalt daar geen statiegeld over uit.

Deposit amounts change by decree and by effective date, and many pages do not say from when an amount applies.

The figures on this page were obtained on 5 September 2026 from Nederlandse Brouwers, Verpact, the Dutch government and wetten.overheid.nl. The 15 cent can deposit has applied since 1 April 2023 and the deposit on small plastic bottles since 1 July 2021. The deposit on the BNR bottle is 10 euro cents. If any of those amounts changes, the calculation for a crate changes too. If in doubt, check your receipt, because bottle and crate are listed separately there.