Deposit return scheme (recycling)

Huge amounts of people do, which is why the refill stations exist.

I don't know the price for a half litre in Boots because I always carry my sports bottle and fill up for free.

I notice a lot of regular travellers doing the same.

It would be good if there was an exemption but in the meantime to avoid paying the deposit the options I gave are the only ones available.

Why don't they just ban these plastic bottles that sell sugary junk anyway that people shouldn't be drinking.

Why not introduce a fountain system in shops where people have to bring containers to fill up if they insist on drinking coca cola etc.

i've gotten into the habit of putting in a small bit of tissue into the empty can after i drink it, really helps minimize the mess while storing/carrying around/depositing cans and doesn't interfer with the weight of it enough to make a problem with the machine.

Which ones?

Beamish has definitely been reduced recently. A number of UK-centric products that were in the mid-high 3% range have been brought to 3.4% due to UK excise changes

Made a point of going back to the store that wouldn't take the receipt yesterday (9km round trip in a diesel, take that environment) and try again.

Yesterday, i was told the system was totally down, software wouldn't load.

Today, the software is up but giving an error message saying barcode not recognised. This receipt came from an rvm 20 feet from the till (which today is no longer working)

Staff member agreed its an absolute shambles and constantly either the machine or the software, or both, are not working. Handed back the receipt again and told, try again next time.

How many attempts will the average person make befire flinging the receipt in the bin? (the black bin, remember the receipt you cant cash in is not recyclable either). This level of absolute incompetence in the launch of this is unacceptable and i suspect deliberate. Plain simple theft of our money with numerous knock on consequences.

Call it a tax, cut out the environmental damage and time wasting aspect of it and be done with it.

Once again later this morning, a large truck will visit my house to collect an almost empty recycling bin, while I'm going all over the place with recycling materials to machines and tills that dont work.

Thanks Chizler, i wasnt aware of that

Re-turn need to send out a notification to retailers to stop them using this "computer says no" excuse.

If the RVM takes the can the cashier must pay out.

This is especially important for non regular customers, tourists etc.

They can't be sent away with a useless piece of paper.

And to think i've had to defend people choosing to buy water. Uisce Eireann are "to send out explanatory booklets". So people who dont read the Indo, wont know about this risk to their health until the booklet arrives, assuming they read it and don't assume its spam and bin the booklet.

No reminder on every news bulletin. No website with an Eircode checker where you can check if you are affected. As I type this I don't even know if Im affected. Irish Waters website is laughable:

Further information

For more about THMs and your drinking water, visit the Environmental Protection Agency. For more about THMs and your health, visit the Health Service Executive.

And the award for Passing the Buck this year goes to...

There has been mention earlier in the thread about people using water refill stations at the airport(so they dont have to buy bottles). I've been bringing a refillable water bottle with me when out and about for years, but still buy bottled water in some places because you don't always trust the water supply.

Ive been to places where the water was safe to drink but was so highly chlorinated, was undrinkable from a taste-aspect. Ive been to other places where the water tasted ok, but by drinking it you were playing russian runs-roulette.

If a refill station is in an area that is on a boil notice, or is in an area with THM, it should clearly state where the water is coming from.

The "other recycling initiatives" came up this week in reporting. I wasn't sure if this was within the remit of re-turn, I certainly hope that re-turn would have no discretion to invest in anything outside of DRS. I expect its not in their actual remit, but is 'at the discretion of the Minister'. What is not in dispute is that any additional cash has ultimately to be dispersed.

I would like to know more about this. Who ultimately decides how these funds get spent? What accountability is there?

Someone mentioned previously that re-turn may be allowed to tinker with something like the producer levy to balance the cash out, fine if the amounts are small, but to me that is proxy distribution of potentially large amounts of cash to producers.

Its more critical if the return rate is less than forecast, or if to counter a low return rate a higher deposit is selected in the future. These are not insignificant sums of money - each 10% variance to plan results in €40m more cash to re-turn. That could be a very nice slush fund for whoever gets to control it.

Happens to me many a time at lidl, did the staff not get it working for you?

According to CEO, they are "up to 1m returns a day" - that is a use of strategically ambivalent language and does not mean '1m on average' or that 1m is has been return on even one day as yet.

The CEO did also say 15.8m had been returned as of this week (he said this Weds, so assume it is as of end Tuesday). Based on re-turn stats from 12 March, that would mean an average of 670k per day for the 15 days up to 27 March.

You are absolutely correct the 5m items sold per day. Some of these are still old stock, there is no data for that %. We also don't know how many of the 300m items sold since 1 Feb had deposit, but I have done some checking and would be very confident old stock is today less than 20% by volume, and receding quickly (its already illegal for wholesalers and producers to supply a store in Ireland with non DRS stock). So items sold with deposit I feel are over 4m per day

Hence, 670k out of say 4m or around 17% would seem to be the average running collection ratio. The ratio was certainly less than 10% from launch up to 12 March, and its 17% or little more maybe as of now. We might get a better picture at start of April.

I've been using those refill stations at Dublin Airport for years and never had a problem with the water.