Deposit return scheme (recycling) - Part 2

Importer may be obliged to do so. I dont know if they are but I know about danish coca cola which is still being imported, sold, deposit not charged and not useable in return machines.

So I personally think that in case of this polish coca cola it may be just some enterprising venture by said garage. I will check my local polish shops and see if they do have similar stickers on their drinks. They do have return bags so I presume they are charging deposits and also pay deposit back when you bring logoed containers in. I will ask as this labeling issue is interesting one.

Ive not been in a Polish shop in ages as my local SuperValu has a great selection of Polish produce. However, while shops are obligated to pay back the deposit and take your empty bottle, there have been several accounts on this thread of people getting blank looks and "oh I dont know…"'s

I suspect if you try to bring back your DRS cans to the Polish shop, the usually chatty shop assistant will suddenly forget all her english.

And who can blame her. If they dont have a DRS machine, what are they meant to do with your empties?

They are obliged to if they are being sold in Ireland.

Importers absolutely can do this, once you have registered the barcode and paid the fees.

And grey imports are also legal, Coca Cola Ireland cannot stop you doing it - but you have to pay the fees, not them.

Now, that doesn't mean this is actually done legally in this very case; but it can be.

I googled it and found a wholesaler listing it as "can", nothing else anywhere and makes me suspect its a grey import via them.

Searching for the barcode on a Coca Cola Ireland thing finds hundreds to thousands of listings; not just one from one wholesaler.

I know, but it may have been a legit distributor and they've paid the deposit to Re-turn. We don't know.

I was walking out of my local Spar yesterday evening and a guy that begs outside that Spar arrived in with a large blue sack of returns for the machine. The lads behind the counter told him the machine wasn't working so he was naturally cursing about it. Thing was I'd used the machine about a minute earlier. I'm guessing they're just fed up of this sort of enterprise and are trying to discourage it.

Ireland is choke full of danish coca cola in cans. They dont come in with logo and cant be deposited in wonder machines. They are for sale pretty much everywhere. They also taste better for some reason. I need to check ingredients but it is quite possible they still use sugar instead of artificial sweetners like in coca cola produced in Ireland. Polish sugar variety also taste much better.

I saw Danish coca cola cans with Carlsberg on the label.

I didn't buy them, I think they came from a pizza place.

Normal Irish Coke still uses sugar

Carlsberg are the bottler for Denmark, Hellenic are the bottler for Ireland (North and South, the plant is in NI). You might see the Hellenic logo on vending machines here but they just use "HBC" on the cans I think.

Coke themselves are the bottler for most of Europe except the bits that Hellenic and Carlsberg have including GB.

Yes, the shop 100% has to take a manual return if the machines are not working. If they refuse, ask for a manager and if they still refuse email Rescam and the HQ of whatever shop it was to complain. The more people go elsewhere, the worse this will get. We need shops to be put out over it, because us bitching won't change anything, but shops making a loss (ie: paying employees to do the work of another company) won't last long.

Yes would really need to see what it identifies as when put it inside the RVM, I think the SuperValu machines show the actual product name when you put an item through.

This link says retailers can choose manual or RVM.

https://re-turn.ie/retailer/

We discussed this some time ago and some thought retailers should have to accept manual returns when machines aren't working but it's not clear that they have to.

I've used RVMs at Dunnes, Tesco, Lidl, Supervalu and Centra but I've never even seen a manual return.

I asked the manager of Supervalu in Mount Merrion and they except manual returns if machine is not working or issue with identifying the item. The manager had no issues cleaning out the machine and putting a new sack in awaiting for the next load.

I'm not going reading 20 odd documents to find where it says retailers can refuse manual returns. I did open the one named Retailer Need to Know guide and it doesn't mention it. The options to the consumer are rvm or manual. If the rvms are not working, manual is the only option and they can't refuse. The only options available to retailers is charge but don't have returns (exemption) or accept returns.

Ok, so is it true to say that you have nothing to prove your assertion that retailers must offer manual return if their RVM is out of action ?

You can say it all day long for all I care but it's not helping.

I just want to find out one way or the other.

Is there one single aspect of this that Return havent made a complete and utter bollix of?

Hmmmmmmm….Let me think.

And they are siphoning off tens of millions of euro from the public for the privilege.

Oh yeah, that's the aspect they didn't make a complete and utter bollix of.

"DEPOSIT RETURN OPTIONS

A Guide For Retailers

A Retailer will have two options when offering a take-back service for the empty, undamaged drinks containers featuring the Re-turn logo returned by consumers:

Manual Returns or Automatic Returns through a Reverse Vending Machine (RVM).

The volume of sales and expected returns, of drinks containers is a key driver in determining whether a Retailer chooses manual collection opt for automatic collection via RVMs."

Above is from the link you said you wouldn't read earlier.

It doesn't say retailers must offer manual if the machines are out of order.

If you have any better information please post it.

The legislation (S.I. No. 33/2024 - Separate Collection (Deposit Return Scheme) Regulations 2024) states that a return point operator shall “take back every in-scope bottle and in-scope container returned to it by a consumer in the manner agreed between the return point and the approved body,”.
“Manner agreed” implies that until Return requires that an alternative manner of collection be in place when an RVM is broken, there is no requirement for shops to offer a manual return.

Their FAQ on the issue of broken RVMs does not inspire confidence:

What can I do if an RVM is malfunctioning?

Notify the Retailer of RVM malfunction.

I would like to figure out what I have been doing wrong. I have yet to have a single eligible bottle or can that Return machines have not accepted. On a couple of occasions I have had to wait 2 minutes for someone to clear the machine. What have I been doing incorrectly? I feel so left out of the frothing rage?

Is it that I have been using the machines as intended? How idiotic of me

I can't remember the exact quote or indeed which movie it was in but it went something like:

"You think that was mis-management? That was perfectly orchestrated fraud".

Its a non-profit, its not a charity.

Incidentally there are lots of charities around the place that just cover operating costs.

Putting aside the operation of the scheme for the end user, for a moment.

It might be too early to get an idear on things but has there been any data provided thus far, to suggest that DRS recycling has a better outcome for our bottles/cans etc versus your standard green recycle bin at home?

Or do we actually even know what happens with the DRS method?

Simple logic suggest that if retailer does have machine in place they do offer returns. If machine is out of order they should proceed with manual since they do offer returns and cant just say come back tomorrow when we fix them.