The new recycling system

The recycling bin takes more than plastic bottles and drinks cans.

There will be no opt out, because each bottle or can will be marked, to allow the machine to read it.

Whether we like it or not, it all starts next year.

There is a thread on it, but I agree also as a rural dweller that this scheme is an ill thought out piece of virtue signalling by the urban greens. We already pay close to €400 annually for alternate waste and recyclable collections. Into the latter go all our aluminium & other tins and plastic bottles etc. We're already paying for this and now this nanny state want us to go to more trouble to do what we already do.

This is an anti litter scheme, not a recycling scheme. But I won't be too surprised if it just leads to more dumping of domestic rubbish in rural areas.

That's fine and would be acceptable here, if the waste companies all reduce their charges appropriately for collecting said recyclables. That is the system that we chose to put in place and that we already pay for. Other countries have different systems.

Big collection costs could well rise if companies can't benefit from taking cans and plastic bottles.

At least two and a half decades in Germany, if not longer. And yes, you need to pay for your bins in Germany as well. In fact, you have to pay regardless of whether you own a place or rent. If you own, you get billed directly, and if you rent, it's billed via the annual "Nebenkostenabrechnung", the extra charges that also cover heating & water costs (yes, we pay for our drinking water), so honestly, most of the supposed "problems" are just down to laziness & a misplaced sense of entitlement. It's really pathetic, to be quite frank.

If you're in a situation where you live in a remote location without access to a car, especially if you also have mobility issues, then yes, I get how this might be problematic. But honestly, apart from that, this is just a whole lot of noise about nothing. It's simple really: Get a plastic crate, collect your empty bottles in there over the week, then just chuck the crate, or crates in the back of your car when you do your weekly shop. It's literally a few minutes of extra effort, and you can use the resulting voucher to reduce the cost of your weekly shop.

I agree that there are significant obvious but unintended consequences: effectively this is a tax on people who shop online.

One option for people who don’t go to shops themselves would be to sell redeemable items to neighbours who will go to a refund centre. Of to use them as donations to local charities.

We had this in the eighties and earlier with glass bottles (return for deposit). I never understood why they got rid of it. Some of the kids in the area would go around collecting the bottles from people who were too lazy to return them themselves.

Sheltered life, give me a break 😂😂😂😂 I'm just not a goddamn drama queen that throws a hissy fit every time something new shows up. I just get on with things, everything else is just a waste of time and energy. I have first hand experience with these systems, both on from my side and from family members, some of whom had significant mobility issues themselves. NONE of these supposed organisational "issues" have been an issue for them or me, despite working full-time jobs, despite dealing with multiple bouts of cancer in the case of my parents, and DESPITE the fact that German store opening hours are much more restrictive than the hours here in Ireland. Nor have they been an issue for anyone else I know, and there is NO reason why people in this country, INCLUDING the people bitching and whining in the two threads on this topic here on Boards, shouldn't be able to adapt with a minimum of fuss. If they choose not to, that's their thing, but they should be called out for making a mountain out of a molehill!

The supposed "price increases" meanwhile are a complete red herring. Prices have exploded already in recent years, in case you hadn't noticed, and THOSE price increases did not come with the option of getting part of that extra spend back. To think that companies will jack up their prices just because of this return system is just idiotic, if it hadn't been for that system, Tesco et. al. would have found another reason. The same goes for bin collections.

Honestly, I can't wait for this system to finally get going. It'll actually make my life a whole lot easier. Less need to worry about getting those bottles into my recycling bin in my kitchen (rental property, bins integrated into the kitchen counters), more space for other stuff in said bin. Plus, the deposit gotten back from returning those bottles will likely come in very handy towards the end of the month. The biggest issue for me is finding a fold-out plastic crate or two, they seem to have either disappeared or never caught on over here in the first place, I certainly haven't seen one of those things in years.

It's another con and tax dressed up as "saving de enviornment" to keep Eamon Ryan and his ideologues happy!

I live in a town but don't have the storage facilities for 3 seperate bins (no garden and no secure area for them). I live alone and the charges by the 2/3 companies operating in the area don't make sense for someone like me based on my usage anyway.

So, I bought a 240L bin 2nd hand and I fill it with general and recyclable waste. When it's full the bags go into the boot of the car and up to the local landfill where for about €12 on average (it's priced by overall weight) I can get rid of the lot into the compacting machines. I do this roughly every 5/6 weeks.

Ultimately it all ends up in the same place anyway and I already pay enough in this country for very little return thanks!

Sorry to jump in here, and maybe I've misunderstood some posts. Is it proposed that we can't put cans or bottles in our recycling bins anymore? Only plastic and cardboard?

I mean, this is still my plan, cans in the recycling bin as before.

There's nothing to stop you continuing as you do, just be aware that you will lose the deposit paid on any drinks cans or plastic bottles, so in effect, you're paying twice for recycling.

I wonder how many "recycle bin rummagers" will materialise, looking for cans or plastic?!

Your situation must be unusual for rural Ireland - a built up area that companies are in competition for. For many years we had no service here, the local authority washed it's hands of the service and the only private contractor wouldn't do these roads. Eventually another company came in and we were glad of their service as it saved storing rubbish and regular trips to the dump.

Why should we pay twice. Maybe we'll investigate cancelling the recycling collection, adapt to the bottle scheme and just burn or put everything else in rubbish bin.

There are unintended consequences when the powers that be bring in poorly thought out schemes. Is this an anti litter or a recycling scheme? They have muddied the waters.

Are there 16 of you in the house or something?

Family of four here, standard size black bin, it goes out every second time so that's once every four weeks and usually there's room to spare. How on earth are you generating that much rubbish?

Recycling won't make money now that pretty much the only valuable item, aluminium, will be gone, so bin charges are going to go up as a result of this not down.

I wouldn't blame them TBH, it will become quite lucrative quite fast.

100 bottles is 25 quid.

100 cans 15 quid.

In terms of scrap and weight that is exponentially high value. Way more valuable than the likes of copper.

I imagine people will start demanding bins they can lock.

@Boggles Jaysus, I was thinking about street bins, but yeah winos rummaging through green bins outside your house, nobody needs that.

I remember on this very site lots of people used to bemoan the fact that we don't do this and why don't the Greens get their sh*t together. Now they bring in the scheme and everyone is unhappy still. Hopefully it leads to all of us reducing our consumption of things we don't really need and ups the rate of recycling.

If the cost of these types of drinks go up, which they are, then I'll be changing my behaviour by not buying them.

I already recycle these and pay for same monthly. That's convenient for me. Bringing these back to shops and faffing around with machines that most likely won't work or be full most of the time doesn't appeal to me so I'll be buying less of these products which is also a positive thing

Again, how does that work?

If I am a dickhéad that throws his can out the window whilst driving along, I'm not changing that behaviour and driving to the nearest Tesco to redeem a 15 cent voucher.

Has any actual environmentalist who isn't dangerously stupid been asked their opinion on this?