Deposit return scheme (recycling)

I doubt it, the scheme is a shambles and I think people aren’t bothered with it in its current guise

As someone who clearly isn't a fan of how the scheme has been implemented I do generally support the idea of DRS. To me the hardest nut to crack will be the drinks on the go. Another improvement would be to increase the number of places where returns can be made. Sure if you're driving anywhere you .just chuck the bottle on the floor of the car till you get home or go shopping. But if its a nice morning and I'm walking to work I should be able to buy a bottle of water/juice etc and be able to return it to any shop on my route as I walk past rather than have to hold onto the bottle for the day or detour to a store of xyz size.

I was travelling through Heuston station yesterday for a work meeting. Lots of small retailers and all eligible for the take back exemption. I didn't purchase a drink so don't know if any of the retailers take back returns but none of them are big enough that they'd have to. Busaras, Connolly probably similar. The throughput of people these places have and full of vending machines and retailers selling drinks. There should be a facility for in such locations to return items.

Our work canteen only sells cans of soft drinks. I'm not going to hang on to an open can all day and hope that I manage to keep it in pristine condition so I've stopped buying them but another example of a place that will have a decent throughput of people and doesn't take returns.

I'd file this under your heading of solving complex problems because it would need the deposit to be treated as cash i.e. be spent anywhere rather than being linked to a specific retailer. This sop to retailers needs to go.

My local Dunnes is fairly transparent with the pricing. I bought 2x 2l Coke Zero last weekend and the SEL included the 50 cent deposit.

Coke have new labels so its handy enough to differentiate between old stock and new stock. The old ones say "Recycle me" and don't have the logo but the new ones have "Return me" and the logo. I try and make sure to pick up stock with the new labels so that I don't get overcharged and I haven't yet but your post and other posts show plenty people have been.

Trust me, you're preaching to the choir.

The paper based system seems ridiculous to me, there should have been an app option from the start.

Where I am currently had no "big" shops, so I asked in the local one what the poster on the window which named them as a participant, when I queried the location of the machine I was told they were just displaying the poster and didn't have a recycle machines as only the "big" shops had those. But they were mandated to have the poster up(none of the other local shops have it)

Is this just a cop-out or the reality of the legislation?

Which centras? Which towns like?

The problem there is the voucher is shop specific i.e you can only use the voucher in the shop you returned the containers to.

So you load a voucher on from dunnes and try use it then in Aldi or wherever.

Bringing your stuff with ya shopping, do your shopping, use voucher is the simplest solution for most people, right now.

I suppose it would take a bit of thinking to solve that problem. I've said this before but more public recycle bins are a start. The naysayers suggest these will be abused by bad people. Ok, put them in places with CCTV ideally or look at something that only accepts a certain type of material, by scanning it, checking it's size etc and see can such a device be modified so that it can be made smaller, not as complex and perhaps a bit weather proof yet still only accept certain types of item. I wonder if there a similar device out there that works like this......

Take the whole deposit payment and receipt BS out of the equation all together.

Just an idea. Obviously the finest minds in the world haven't it figures out but you have to start somewhere to get a solution to the issue you suggest. A significant portion of bottles and cans are bought through these channels and like other issues we have highlighted, this scheme will be a costly failure and worse still will set back green initiatives by years.

It's good advice.

It could save people from losing money.

The fact that the voucher is shop specific is another major problem with the scheme as far as I'm concerned.

You're supposed to be getting your own money back.

As far as I am aware, I can spend my money where I want. Not where a supermarket tells me I can.

Exchange it for cash then.

They're in shops, issuing shop specific vouchers, nearly everywhere.

Is the long term goal of this awful scheme to make plastic bottles an absolute pain in the arse for everyone involved and it's a matter of time before producers start changing their packaging to those awful cardboardy type bottles just to avoid all the hassle.

If that's where we're going to end up then there's been a huge amount of money spent on those machines for very little reward. I'm just taking the 15c as another "green" tax and will continue to use the recycle bin as always. I just can't buy into this absolute mess of a scheme.

Yup. Thankfully the internet wasn't really around when the plastic bag levy came in

That would involve me queueing up in a shop to cash in a voucher.

That is not convenient for me, as I do my grocery shopping online.

As the scheme operates now, I won't bother - I will continue to use my green bin as I have always done, and if it's contents goes to landfill or incineration?

Not my problem.