Polish police warn against deposit fraud stickers sold online to trick bottle return machines

The deposit system

Poland's nationwide deposit scheme launched on 1 October 2025, adding a 50-groszy surcharge to plastic bottles up to 3 litres and metal cans up to 1 litre. From 2026, reusable glass bottles up to 1.5 litres carry a 1-złoty deposit. The packaging must bear a printed symbol (two arrows forming a rectangle with the word "kaucja" and the amount) to be accepted by reverse vending machines. No receipt is required, but crushed containers are rejected.

Stickers for sale

Within months, online marketplaces including Allegro began offering adhesive labels that replicate the deposit mark and barcode. Social-media videos show users sticking them onto ordinary containers, which the machines then misidentify as deposit-bearing items and pay out the refund.

The deposit system was supposed to be simple: you buy a drink, pay the deposit, return the packaging, get your money back. Theory simple. Practice? The internet already shows stickers that turn any packaging into a small ATM.

Police warning

Police officer Łukasz Mituła publicised the practice on LinkedIn, cautioning that what appears to be a harmless trick is legally fraud. He stressed that the issue is not the 50-groszy amount but the deliberate deception of the system.

Just because something looks like 'cleverness' doesn't mean it stops being misleading someone for money. And there are already paragraphs for that, and you have to reckon with consequences. Even if someone thinks 'it's only 50 groszy'.

Legal and systemic risk

Mituła warned that if the system can be gamed, it will be exploited at scale. Tutorials spread faster than institutional warnings, he noted, turning a single trick into a trend. The police have not yet reported arrests, but the officer's post signals that law enforcement is monitoring the practice.

It's never just about 50 groszy. It's about the mechanism. If the system can be cheated, someone will try. If it can be made into a joke, someone will make it a trend. If a tutorial can be recorded, someone will post it online faster than institutions can write the first warning.

EU collection targets

The deposit scheme is designed to help Poland meet EU selective-collection goals for beverage packaging: 77% by 2028 and 90% from 2029. Widespread fraud could undermine those targets by diverting refunds away from genuine returns.