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RE-TURN, THE OPERATORS of the Deposit Return Scheme, have today issued further guidance for shoppers on how the scheme works and how you can secure your deposit.
The system has been adopted here as part of an EU-wide directive on single-use plastics which has set a recycling target for plastic bottles of 77% by 2025.
A 15 cent charge – which is seen as a ‘deposit’ – has been added to aluminium and steel cans and plastic bottles up to 500ml, while a 25 cent deposit has been added to those that are 500ml and over.
The cans and bottles must then be returned empty and undamaged in order to reclaim this deposit.
This can be done either over the counter or through the use of a Reverse Vending Machine.
However, there was some confusion over which cans and bottles can be returned.
Originally, consumers were told the containers must feature the Re-turn logo.
However, Re-turn has since clarified that some containers which don’t contain a logo will incur a deposit which can then be reclaimed.
“Should consumers be charged a deposit on a drinks container, please be assured that you will get your deposit back when you return it empty and undamaged,” a Re-turn spokesperson said today.
Starting from 1 February, when the scheme was introduced, retailers have a four-month transition period during which they can sell both new drinks containers with the Re-turn logo and older drinks containers that do not feature this logo.
In this interim period, drinks containers can incur a deposit either by having the Re-turn logo with a registered barcode, or by having a barcode that is registered as part of the scheme but without featuring the Re-turn logo.
The spokesperson added that during this period, there will be old drink containers without a logo and with a barcode that is not registered to the scheme – these drinks containers will not incur a deposit charge.
From 1 June, all drinks containers included in the scheme will feature the Re-turn logo.
Meanwhile, Re-turn has said that drink containers don’t have to be returned to the shop they were bought from and can be returned to any participating retailer.
However, vouchers issued from a Reverse Vending Machine must be redeemed at the same retail outlet and vouchers can be redeemed in cash or against a store purchase at the till.
There is no maximum number of drinks bottles or cans that you can return in one visit.
Re-turn added if a Reverse Vending Machine is not working or operating properly, consumers should notify the retailer so that the issue can be resolved.
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Shambles of a scheme
@Argus Romsworth: seriously like what group of geniuses came up with this ‘initiative’ that is so unbelievably convoluted that the Board of this latest Quango can’t even understand it themselves??
Most households have Green Bins for the purpose of recycling which include hard and soft plastics.
I’d say I was getting seriously sick of this farce when so many don’t even have proper drinking water but nah I’m just done.
Why undamaged only ….The can goes into the machine goes into a bag ,emptied into a yellow bin then picked up by a bin lorry and dumped into it surly the can gets damaged along the way
@Chris: it’s so the barcode can be read properly
@Chris: I’ve yet to use the machines, but my guess is that it doesn’t need to be pristine, just undamaged enough to go through the mechanism and read the barcode, but it’s easier just to say undamaged.
@Chris: Because otherwise the same item could be cycled through the machine endlessly for infinite cash. The machine damages the return once processed which ensures it can never be processed again.
@Rochelle Hart: well it compresses it I’d imagine to save space but the can can’t be used again anyway as it is inside the machine.
@Larry Betts: So after the 1st of June it shouldn’t matter!
@Chris: Undamaged only applies as the machine has to be able to read the return logo on the can. When the can is accepted it is then crushed
Total shambles of a scheme — buy bottles or else take a trip across the border and buy your beer there — no minimum alcohol charge and none of this re-turn shambles.
@Tis Shields: good idea, a win win
@Tis Shields: Totally with you on that,found others items were much cheaper also
@Tis Shields: spend a fortune a fuel to save 15c on a can that’s 60ml smaller…
@brian magee: If only there was a way to buy more than one item…
@brian magee: Its not 15c a can, with minimum pricing here it can be more like 2 euro a can – get enough and your quids in. Get some coal also at €8 20kg (16 here)
What was the point in insisting we all have 3-4 different bins for recycling only to now be told that we are going to be charged extra for the product to recycle in-store!! It makes Absolutely No Sense.
Honestly you do your shopping, bring it all home, and as you use the products that you would normally put into your bi-weekly recycling Bin only to have to drag all these empty vessels back to the store to get the extra money paid at the till to recycle. It’s the most ridiculous extra charge on our ALREADY EXPENSIVE SHOPPING.
The Sooner that Lot of WEALTHY Wasters in the Daily get thrown out on the streets the better
@Nola De’e: where are living that you have 3-4 recycling bins
@Nola De’e: The government likes it because they believe it’ll tick a box on their EU requirements for plastic while the supermarkets will play their part since only they have the space to fit the machines, they know it’ll drive customers to them and our government loves bowing to big business. That’s the motivation behind it.
Nothing in this country is done with any consideration for the ordinary person’s cost or convenience, we’re a complete afterthought.
@Martin Mongan:
1. General waste
2. Recyclable waste
3.Food waste
& some waste company’s have bottle’s have a separate bin.
@Roy Clarke: Exactly – General waste, green, brown. And glass, some will take glass. In fairness, there could be more public recycling bins for people who don’t have homes as well.
@Nola De’e: well for some, 4 bins, some people don’t even have bin collection services! And does to answer your confusion. They tried it that way , devide, but it’s not working. A huge percentage is still going into the landfill or at least not recycled.
Has nobody copped the actual strategy to this. No change from recycling in your green bin, what’s different is the Green Tax Party is counting on a large percentage not being returned and therefore a revenue stream is created. He’s dipped into joe averages pocked yet again. Greens Out.
@Mike 100: Exactly
It’s hard to credit the mixed messages we are getting.
Told to change barcodes and apply the logo. Now it turns out other competitors/products don’t need return logo, simply a farce how can you get this so badly wrong.
@Vinny Hughes: It’s ridiculous. Typical bungling. Shame because I think this is a scheme that would definitely catch on. I used to do it myself in the 80s for pocket money. I remember it fondly.
@Louis Jacob: Yes last time round it was simpler, you took the botlles back to any shop that sold them and collected the deposit over the counter. No barcodes or reverse vending machine.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: And back then those were heavy glass bottles being returned, washed by hand!
What a joke. So if someone does a weekly shop and purchases a lot of items that carry the charge but may or may not have the logo. They then have to go through their receipt to see what they can bring back.
@johnabc: The worst part is none of this was announced before the scheme went live, it seems deliberately. The scheme was sold to the country as being simple with clearly marked labels but now we’re told it’s not.
@johnabc: or you just put yr empty bottles in a bag and bring them back week after…how difficult is that!
@Clare Power: Not enough bile in your comment. Why aren’t you outraged at something? Shame on you, asking sane questions like that!
@Clare Power: Not if none of the shops you buy from actually accept returns, Most shops don’t, About 70% of shops opted out of the scheme.
Ridiculous nonsense. I’ve been recycling for at least 20 years & now yet another tax is being levied on me. Do the Greens really think that with all the other obligations we have that we must now queue, make sure cans not damaged, receipt, blah blah. Feel like just giving up sometimes. Sick of it
@Patrice Ahern:
Being charged money for the deposit and then getting it back in the form of a voucher is absolutely scandalous.
@Andy Gibson: Yea, agree.
Definitely should be cash.
Or a voucher than can be exchanged for cash.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: The receipts can be exchanged for cash.
I went to the north and got 25 packs of sparkling water I do not intend on using the return system Found that other items ere much cheaper also so win win for me
Can anything be effectively run out in this pixie land.
Why not have waited until the 1st June when all purchases of containers MUST have the logo on it. Will/could save a lot of confusion
If red dye can be taken out of diesel, this gem of a scheme is ripe for the taking. As usual, the regular punter will be skewered.
Surely they shouldn’t be charging a deposit on a product without the logo. This will mean Lots of deposits will be paid to the re-turn operators without any knowledge by the consumer. It’s a good scheme but there’s Something fishy about this.
Another Green disaster policy just like the plan to shut the centre of dublin down in August…can’t wait to vote these dopes out.
It surely can’t be legal that there are items which neither have the re-turn logo and the total price isn’t advertised on the store shelves? You’re just ambushed with an unmarked deposit charge at the checkout.
I’ve noticed in the shops that both Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Co have removed all their 24 can multipacks and introduced 18 can multipacks with the re-turn logo at the same price or a little bit more. Getting screwed again!!
Sugar tax part two….another sham sold to the gullible virtue signalling and ban it all mobs and will turn out to be just another revenue raising exercise….
Is it just drinks containers or all plastic. Mayonaise, Toilet cleaner ????
@Alan:
I would imagine Mayonaise would come in under the dairy section, which means it would be exempt
Don’t know about toilet cleaners, washing softener, etc, etc, etc….
@Alan: No,only drinks containers. Milk,detergents etc use different types of plastic
I’ll just return a few bottles and when I come home I’ll throw the coins in the meter and if there’s nothing on RTE 1, I suppose I’ll just have to try the other channel. Ahhh nostalgia!
But but but, it works in Germany….
@Dave C: you mean all of Europe. Also worked in Ireland in the 70s
@Martin Mongan: This scheme? As it stands now?
I don’t think there was a scheme as badly thought out as this here in the 70s.
Could you buy a load of cans in Northern Ireland and pop them in the machine making additional savings?
@orb7eckn: If they’re on the list of international items then yes
@orb7eckn: no they will be rejected by the machine
@orb7eckn: print off the barcode from an included product on a sticker and cover the existing barcode! Job done
@Matty A: Print of a few sheets of barcodes and… I wonder if you even need a bottle or can, will just a barcode do? Hmm perhaps barcoded bog roll inners would fool the machines.
Not that anyone would do such things but speculation is fun.
I live in a small town I now have to drive 50 miles round trip to return cans and bottles to a big supermarket, where’s my bin men collected it before ,so much for protecting the environment what a load of s-h-t I’d have to recycle 300 cans to pay for fuel
@M G: Good point. I wonder if supermarkets will change their system to allow for collections as well as deliveries?
That’s a really bad way to start.
Wait until drinks companies realise people are not buying products because of this and costing them millions of euro in revenue
Really? Did people stop buying groceries because there was a nominal charge if you bought plastic bags to hold everything for each run? The idea is that we recycle materials, not stack up a load of single use plastic.
I’d also appreciate being able to buy by weight, or volume, reusing our own containers.
Is mór an cúis náire í go ndiúltaíonn an scéim seo, atá údaraithe agus urraithe ag an Rialtas, eolas a chur ar fáil dá chustaiméirí i nGaeilge fiú i gceantair Ghaeltachta ar an bhforas spurious, mar “private entrrprise?”, nach bhfuil aon dualgas orthu a dhéanamh. mar sin.
So complicated..just like Windfarms ..we generate electricity and the Greens mess up the grid so it cannot be used…airhead…
Lol
One such item where there is a 15 cent deposit charged but is not accepted by the RVM machines is the McDonald’s Happy Meal orange juice bottle.
How much power are the recycling machines using to run? Law of unintended consequences at work… If it was about recycling the machines would take to un logo cans and just not pay out the deposit, but they don’t.
Look for the 5 Ltd and no issue
@You’re Not Serious: LTR
@You’re Not Serious: Okay, but really only people with cars are buying and hauling 5 litre containers home regularly.
More confusion. Non logo bottles charging the extra ‘deposit’ must be registered with the scheme to be accepted so having seen tills updated to automatically read the barcode and add the 15 cents etc. is it the same either barcodes registered, the tills will automatically add the costs
In supermarket yesterday. €1.50 “deposit” on 6 pack of Guinness Nitroserge without special barcode/logo. No thanks I’ve no time for the drama of returning these.
This is abuse. I am getting charged 15 cents per bottle, and if I want them back I have to use that shit scheme. I will boycott all shops using that charge now
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