Deposit return scheme (recycling)

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190176#Comment_122190176

If you use brown cardboard you can chop it up and put it in the compost.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190627#Comment_122190627

And then the EU make it law from 1st July that all drinks containers sold with twist on caps must have the cap permanently attached to the container which to me would mean complete contamination of all clear plastics being recycled. I think someone is taking the piss with us to be honest and seeing how long before we crack or start asking sensible questions to their madness.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190627#Comment_122190627

Correct a drop in the can won't be a problem for the system.

However it may be a nuisance for the people transporting the cans to the RVM.

If you can keep them upright it's ok but in a bag they drip.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190637#Comment_122190637

This explains it.

Not everyone is happy.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/05/25/why-are-bottle-caps-attached-to-the-bottle-inside-the-eu-directive-causing-drink-spills-ev#:~:text=It%20is%20mandatory%20for%20all,tackle%20plastic%20waste%20in%20Europe.

Tow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190637#Comment_122190637

The same green logic which though diesel engines are clean.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122189021#Comment_122189021

…many of those countries implemented these policies during low inflation periods, we re now in a completely different period…..

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190637#Comment_122190637

You expect joined up Green thinking?

dxhound2005

The Re-Turn site recommends leaving the caps on. The internet tells me that this is the correct process these days, different from the past. The two materials get separated after shredding by placing them in water, where the lid material sinks and the bottle material floats.

"Do I have to remove the lid when returning my plastic bottle?

You can return your empty, undamaged plastic bottle with or without the lid. We recommend returning bottles with caps, because this will ensure that the cap is recycled, too. Also, if the bottle cap is still on, it is easier to preserve the shape of the bottle."

tohaltuwi

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/serious-concerns-over-lack-transparency-32887851

has this been posted before 🤔 with threads going funny, not sure. Jennifer Whitmore doesn’t trust ReTurn anyway.

greasepalm

I bought a small cream and the lid stayed on as its there to be recycled as all in one rather than hunting for the top.

I use one of those green delivery trays you get with home delivery and stack the cans upright and bottles with caps on and never a mess as its usually full. I also had a small recycling bags for water bottles with tops on and no mess.

Having caps on i assume less mess for ourselves when recycling.

2 cans rejected non labelled with icon so green bin and no deposit charged.

No issues as of yet and happy so far

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122190637#Comment_122190637

Beats me. Perhaps because it is a money making scheme where bulk of profit come from unclaimed deposits despite of what they are saying and any recycling is just a secondary afterthought. I seriously doubt any recycling will take place in Ireland, material will most likely be shipped somewhere else.

If you do have some older bottles in the house it is actually prined on some of them that bottle and cap should be recycled separately. They are different type of plastic. Also labels which used to be paper labels long time ago are now made from plastic film some of which are different plastic than bottle or cap too.

Akrasia

The machines are constantly out of order in Ennis where I live. Every time I've tried to use one in the past 2 weeks at multiple locations the machines have either been broken or full.

It's getting a bit silly

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191025#Comment_122191025

Post #5591.

vafankillar

i love how some people are like "it will be 100% illegally against the law to sell a can/bottle after june 1st without the return logo. shops are obliged by this obligation and MUST follow it!"

like seriously, whats gonne happen 😂 someone will email re-turn to inform them & return will reply with a automatic email to say it's been forwarded to the relevant department? will yiz please get a grip😭

dxhound2005

Sunday Times 27 May, link is behind a paywall.

"Retailers participating in the deposit return scheme (DRS) will be fined €5,000 from next weekend if found selling old stock of the plastic containers and cans without the Re-turn logo. June 1 will mark the end of the transition period for retailers, meaning they must sell any containers not registered with the scheme."

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191899#Comment_122191899

They will send the bottle police around to confiscate all illegal bottles and cans,it's a serious offence to dodge tax in this country,even the bottle tax.

dxhound2005

The start of this video explains how recycling deals with bottle lids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOQtTrgRhc

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191862#Comment_122191862

Tough, your rubbish is part of you now.

You will bring it with it until one of these bins says yes. Or throw them in a bush, either way Re-Chit-Ching wins.

Obey the logo.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191862#Comment_122191862

I’ve experienced this just a couple of times- usually sorted by the time I leave the supermarket BUT- that’s a lot of extra work for a supermarket employee - I don’t know how many times a day they have to empty the bins or push down the material to clear the blockages but it must be a right pain in the ass.
You’d think the machines would have been built to take a lot more items before a declutter was required. You’re reliant then on the supermarket being dedicated to clearing faults and keeping the machine in service -and that’s just to keep it running - how reliable overall are the machines I wonder? How often do they have to call out the service people?

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191822#Comment_122191822

see DXHound’s post above - they get separated in process so perfectly ok to leave the annoyingly attached cap on

tohaltuwi

The capacity & turnover, and staff time needed, wasn’t exactly well calculated ahead of rolling it out.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122192386#Comment_122192386

I used it again this morning. Two machines were free, the first machine refused to accept any bottles the first time and then gave a warning for unusual activity detected and shut down for a few minutes

The 2nd machine worked fine.

Obviously this is the machine that will get full faster, while the other machine causes nothing but frustration. Not a great experience. I'm guessing the bar code reader is all gunked up (which should have been expected given that there will be inevitable spills of sticky syrupy liquid all around the entrance to the conveyor belts ) and struggles to read from multiple angles

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122191862#Comment_122191862

"We copied the system in Germany!" don't you know.

No we didn't. We copied the idea of the system but re-invented the wheel and in doing so most shops bought the absolute cheapest possible RVM, and surprise surprise, they are not up to scratch, are too small so fill up quickly, get stuck, are constantly out of order.

Any and/or every electoral candidate that comes to my door is going to be asked about this sham of a system.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122192386#Comment_122192386

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122192583#Comment_122192583

The stores are open 12+ hours per day and in most cases not overstaffed.

Someone has to be available at all times to tend to the RVMs whether it's a breakdown or just a full bin.

All the floor staff have set designated tasks to keep them busy during their shifts.

Of course the busier the shop the quicker the RVM will fill up and at the same time the floor staff will be distracted with other jobs.

The only solution is extra staff which the shop owners will want to avoid but something has to give and it shouldn't be the customer being unnecessarily discomodded.

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122192576#Comment_122192576

Not entirely correct. If you watched it or know anything about it the guy actually said it would be easier to recycle if they would be from the same material (or separated). Some countries require separation before recycling. Being of different material and recycled together there is another unnecessary step involved in separation which cost energy and water.

If re-turn is poised to make money from material only they would be very incentivized to ask public for removal of the caps as that would leave them with higher quality of product which would fetch a better price when selling it to actual recycling company.

Re-turn is just another middleman who stuck their hand in the process of recycling while fully financed by anyone and everyone who pay deposit and dont come back for refund. You would see them hat in hand in dail asking for money if people returned 100% of stuff they were charged deposit for despite claims of how they are going to be financed by selling recyclable material. That is precisely the reason behind attempt to issue fines for selling containers without logo and without deposit charged. That deposit is their bread and butter.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122184372#Comment_122184372

Biggest payday Ive seen on here was 200 euro voucher from @BoardsBottler.

Note the majority of that was a stream of containers from their place of work if I recall correctly.

However we are a long way off what's going on in this video. He's crushing containers and heading to a bulk return centre to collect his winnings.

I doubt we'll see many people out looking for containers in Ireland due to:

- containers cant be crushed and must be good enough condition

- having to tour about trying to find a working RVM that doesnt sh!t itself half way through feeding containers in 1 by 1. No bulk return centres.

- requirement to queue up in store to get cashed out (Australia allow refund to bank account).

Nonsense.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122192992#Comment_122192992

I am very much looking forward to the video of the person who has gone collecting cans, has been feeding them into the machine and is watching the counter go up, is planning to "cash out" when it hits 200 but then the machine crashes, and 'forgets' what has been fed into it, reboots and just displays "Welcome to ReTurn".

I expect the reaction to be… priceless.

The voucher and cash thing seems to just be down to the fact that the system is modelled on Germany, one of the few countries in Europe that has a major dislike of cards and contactless.

Ireland's definitely headed more towards the Nordic and UK attitudes to cashless payments. It should be possible to just have the money loaded back to a debit card.

Some countries have better systems for that though than we do. The banks here had been about to launch a payment platform called Yippay that would have allowed payment directly to a mobile phone number, very easily. But, the project fell apart last year and it never happened.

It would have been a similar system to what Revolut use, but open to all the banks.

Entering an IBAN number on the machine would be a total pain in the rear.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122193041#Comment_122193041

It's pretty clear the reason why it was done that way was because the retailers operating the RVMs \ taking returns wanted us to spend the voucher in their store. And the government which is supposed to balance the needs of different participants in the scheme caved in to retailers. Just as they caved into retailers by having a takeback exemption of 250 square metres much larger than even the large one originally set. That wasn't copied from Germany.

The ordinary public came dead last in the priorities of the Government.

With an added screw you to those with limited mobility, those living in locations without RVMs, those who get home deliveries…

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122193041#Comment_122193041

I was thinking everyone who wants bank refunds gets a Re-Turn mobile app + account with IBAN already added to account. QR code displays on RVM screen. Scan QR code with phone camera. Money sent to bank. Done.

As @odyssey06 has already pointed out in Ireland vested interests always win out. Customers / public exist only to be milked for every penny.