Man charged S$0.60 deposit for 6-pack of drinks with BCRS logo on packaging, but realises cans missing logo

A man who bought a six-can pack of Ice Mountain sparkling water recently was charged S$0.60 more than the usual price as a refundable deposit under the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS).

But while the packaging of the entire pack bore the BCRS Deposit Mark, he claimed that the cans inside did not.

This meant that he could not return the cans at a Return Right machine to get each can's 10-cent deposit back.

"I believe many consumers do not know they were mistakenly charged the deposit," the man, Cheah Kok Keong, told Mothership.

"I do not know how long this error has been occurring, how widespread it is or how many consumers are affected," he added.

He has noticed the discrepancy only for the Ice Mountain grapefruit-flavoured sparkling water, which he bought at the Taman Jurong and Chinatown Point FairPrice outlets around the middle of June.

A spokesperson at F&N Foods, the manufacturer and distributor of Ice Mountain drinks, told Mothership that they were aware of the matter.

Following investigations, the company identified the affected products and replaced "the limited number of affected stocks".

Transition period

The F&N Foods spokesperson explained that the error involved "an isolated batch of stocks" as the company "transitioned [its] packaging to comply with the requirements of the recently introduced BCRS".

Although the BCRS officially began on Apr. 1, beverage producers are given a transition period until Sep. 30, 2026, to clear stocks that are not labelled with the Deposit Mark.

During this transition, consumers can expect a mix of containers on the shelves – some with the 10-cent refundable deposit, and others without.

On Jul. 7, CNA reported that drinks retailers and wholesalers had been facing various mix-ups in old and new inventory, sometimes resulting in erroneous charges for consumers.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) and BCRS Ltd. jointly shared then that issues were still being identified and addressed during the transition period.

In response to such errors, NEA has engaged businesses to explain the scheme requirements, they said.

"So far, businesses that have been engaged have promptly corrected the erroneous charges."

Recently when a Mothership writer tried the BCRS machines, he encountered an error in getting his S$0.10 deposit back, and had to email BCRS for the refund, which he received two weeks later.

Offered refund & replacement

After being mistakenly charged, Cheah submitted feedback to F&N Foods.

The company replied on Jul. 8 to apologise and offer to collect and replace his sparkling water cans, according to the email correspondence seen by Mothership.

However, he rejected this offer, saying "it is not a definitive and meaningful resolution".

"It only addresses my personal feedback, but not the thousands of unsuspecting consumers," he said, and urged the company to find a "more accountable way" to address the mistake.

F&N Foods told Mothership that consumers who have queries or concerns may contact their Customer Service Hotline at 6210 8200.

A FairPrice Group spokesperson said that they had also received feedback from Cheah.

"We immediately removed all affected stock from our shelves and issued a refund to the customer," they said.

Customers who purchased the affected product from FairPrice between May 16 and Jun. 30 may visit any FairPrice store from Jul. 22 to 31 with their receipt to receive a refund for the BCRS deposit fee.