Deposit return scheme (recycling)

Work in progress?

I used a DRS scheme in the Czech Republic from 2009 to 2013. Thats 15 years ago. I never, ever, encountered a machine out of order.

Why didn't we copy their model which was mature already when I was using it and presumeably has matured more since then?

The machines were a lot less technologically advanced than the ones we use here. No touchscreen, just 3 lights if I remember correctly. Green to put in a bottle, amber while its working and red for an error.

No barcodes. The shape of the bottle or can was scanned by an infra red beam. If it matched the profile, it got accepted. The only bottles not accepted were Cobra beer bottles and some custom wine bottle shapes. Oh yeah! They accepted glass wine and beer bottles.

So again, I have to ask. How much research was put into this scheme? Because it really feels like Ossian Smith googles "reverse vending machines", found a manufacturer, ordered a brochure and then ordered 10,000 units.

1. Order ~about hmm, 26 counties, lets say 300 per county… lets say about 10,000 units
2. ???
3. Ouila! We have a DRS scheme. Oh yeah I need to publish a bill in the Oireactas too

I'm clearly a bit on the slow side because it took me 3 years to realise why the cans for Irn Bru were in the foreign foods section. - Because in the Czech Republic Irn Bru is foreign food. For the relatively small amount of stock of Irn bru they carried, it would have made no financial sense for them to contnue to carry Irn bru if they had to go faffing around with a czech return logo or barcodes, but because the cans come in the standard 330ml aluminium can, all the machine had to do was check it matched the standard profile to be accepted. Simples!

It's not a treat when you don't take it.

They weren't charging you 15 cent for the water but for the deposit which is refundable.

They'd be breaking the law to give it to you without collecting the deposit.

You refused an item worth about €1.20 rather than pay 15 cent.

Its not a treat when the good is taken out of it at the till with a deposit.

You sound like you'd ask someone can they break a 50 euro note for their birthday 🤣.

So a bit of a smell is more important than the planet??

it’s called a treat. I’ve never heard of a great costing money.

It's unusual and I did say in another post that the company could have paid the deposit so you would have received the treat unencumbered.

Possibly a warning for other companies running such promotions to stump up the 15 cent and avoid bad PR.

People waste money. Yes, I understand this. HOWEVER

The whole point of this sheme is to increase collection rates to 90 percent - or so we are told. To do this, everyone who has always recycled must engage with this scheme. On top of that, those that didn't engage with recycling in the past must also engage with it (or so we are told).

So while I can control the controlables here and make sure I get my money back it is a pain in the behind relative to how this process worked for me in the past and indeed means that I will lose out on some deposits here and there for various reasons.
If I lose out on a deposit, or someone doesn't claim theirs back, thats goes into the ten percent that wont be returned.

What I am seeing currently is a lack of engagement from the general public on this scheme in numbers that you would want to be seeing a few months in. So this whole scheme is completely POINTLESS if 90 percent of items aren't returned.

What happens then? More convoluted bolloxology no doubt, but at all times its the consumers fault.

So, yeah, those people that you don't seem to care about, their use cases, they matter, but I don't believe the architects of this scheme acutally care as the actual implications of not meeting targets aren't anyones fault but the consumer.

It's completely different to the comparisions you've mentioned here.

Short answer is I dont know. That is something that really flipping ticks me off though. Not just this one issue, but so many across a range of issues. Considering we are such a small country, why can we not settle on one vendor for a thing?

I have never seen the RVM in a Dealz ever functioning. It's very different to the one in Supervalu and different again to the one in Aldi. Which makes me think they left it up to the retailers to buy the RVMs. Which makes integration of a system 10 times more difficult when you have 3 or 4 different manufacturers with another 3 or 4 different models involved. That explains some shortcomings in the system.

To be honest, if you did that I'd expect the beggar to tell you to f*ck off. Even our beggars are too posh to go using this system. A black plastic bag containing charitably(LOL) 20 containers is going to get the beggar 3 euro. He or she will make more than that standing in their spot in 20 minutes, than the 20 minute round trip of trying the RVM-lotto.

But the Czechs are littering their own country with plastic bottles. Anything is worth a try to get them to behave.

"In an attempt to get more citizens on board, the ministry is appealing to Czechs’ love of nature – according to them, plastic bottles are one of the most frequently discarded items of rubbish that end up littering the Czech countryside."

So tweak the existing system. Add a tax to plastic bottles. Promote reuseable containers from the consumer AND the supplier POV through whatever means necessary. Increase recycle bin access. Review fines and moreso review enforcement of existing laws in relation to littering. Enhance education in schools.

How much littering is going on? Seems like a bit of a throwaway comment seeing as 80 percent of plastic bottles end up in landfill globally (not even being recycled)

https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/home-hub/plastic-bottle-w

We need to be reducing and reusing with these items - not trying to increase recycling and collectiong rates - that will never solve the problem.

So, looking at our future we are exhausted engaging with any of this.

Considering a soda stream and tap water for 'coke' which would be much more environmentally friendly and cheap and less hassle. Anyone else any ideas?

They don't have any competitors so how can information be commercially sensitive!

They are worse than a quango at this stage. The muppet of a minister has just given them a monopoly and walked away laughing his empty head off. Doesn't give a damn about ordinary people. Doesn't give a damn about the actual environment.

I wonder how those people dispose of glass bottles and jars if they get any in their shopping, delivered or otherwise? My bin company does not allow them in any of their bins. I looked up Greyhound, and they have the same rule. If there was a count of glass bottles and jars, a lot of mine would not be counted until months after purchase.

I don't mind doing it, even though it is a separate journey, unlike bringing Re-Turn empties with me when going to a shop. And the bottle banks run the risk of contamination. I would like to see glass included in our scheme, and maybe that is in the planning. Some other countries do it, some don't. One thing is for sure, it would cause outrage if people had to pay the deposit, on glass bottles and jars. Among the permanently outraged.

This scheme is just so stupid. I already do my recycling and pay for it.

To follow this I’d have to keep certain items separate, drive a few KMs to the machine and hope it’s in order etc to get a few quid back….

It would probably cost me more in petrol than the deposit is even worth.

It’s actually better for the planet if I just keep recycling as normal and accept the higher cost by not returning them separately.