Deposit return scheme (recycling) - Part 2

The issues before DRS seems to have occurred mainly after kerbside collection - i.e. fairly reasonable efforts had been made to separate, but with a low item value sometimes it was less costly to simply incinerate "recycling" waste.

If plastic and aluminium cans are worth 20x as much (value of deposit), then waste collectors suddenly get way better at separation within their plant and they never again divert plastic or aluminium to incineration.

I don't think they necessarily need to have separate collection systems. I am also not proposing that they need to refund the value to the householder, so there is no complexity there either [the consumer choice is return it yourself, or forfeit the deposit - this is as it is now, no change]. Waste collectors simply become super-incentivised to recover PET and aluminium from what they already collect.

Its a zero-cash-cost change (as the deposits are already there in re-turn), it adds to re-turns collection stats (as in the mission of DRS) & it some way protects waste collectors from revenue loss / consumers from price increases.

Again I ask - why has re-turn not done this already?

Re-turn are taking people's money, they are taking the items we purchased and returned. Their operations are based on an expected 10% retention rate. All of under via a state mandated monopoly. It is last resort semantics to try to claim otherwise.

If Re-turn turn around and look for increase in the deposits, given that it is a state mandated amount, then the onus on them to produce the figures to justify that request is far greater. Given that they are funded via a state mandated amount and a state mandated monopoly, they need to be fully transparent with where the money is going - is it being used to fund recycling, it is being used to reduce producer fees etc

It would be like RTE looking for a licence fee increase without providing any details why.

Re-turn need to be justifying from the get go and on an annual basis the deposit levels being charged and how it is utilised.

Whereas bin companies are a service provider operating in a competitive market.

If you were discussing any price increase by such a provider, outside Re-turn - broadband, energy whatever, have you ever looked for: "Any company proposing to take extra should be able to break down the figures and justify it." ?

It would be rather telling if it only occurs to you in the context of something connected to Re-turn.

In an ideal world they should do so, but I would re-iterate that reporting transparency ask of Re-turn is legitimately greater.

Apologies if discussed previously. Is it possible to build up these recycle receipts and use a large number of them when doing a weekly shop?

If we cannot get any figures from ReTurn about items collected and recycled or director's remuneration from a quango set up by the gov't which is a monopoly and has NO competition, do you seriously expect a waste company to tell you the exact reason with figures pre and post price increase what this new system's practice is causing a ?% increase?????????????

Nobody washes containers! My local council recycling has dinners,bbq trays,vegetables and gardening waste in the bottle,can banks.

The sharks will be out for you unless you post a pic, and even then?

That's a very long reply considering that in the first line of my post -

"I take your point about Re-turn and commercial sensitivity"

I never suggested that Re -turn shouldn't be subject to oversight and reporting requirements.

There is a difference beyond semantics in the relationship between bin companies and the consumer and the relationship with Re-turn.

Yes I do think that any company I have a contract with should be able to justify price increases.

That's not allowed.

You should be able to cash it or exchange it for goods immediately.

Complain to the shop.

It's in the report that was commissioned to shoe horn this scam into existence.

The exact figures no one outside the waste managements companies will, but this Ireland so it be multiply by 2 and carry the 1.

But they would be under no obligation to itemise this amount. Which is handy.

Which report was that ?

By the way it seems we are both interested in getting the same information.

What do you think the shop will do?

What are re-turn doing about out of order machines?

This con is really designed for the big players Dunnes, Lidl, SuperValu etc.

There should be a customer charter. If a machine is routinely out of service or there are always big queues we should be getting compo.

Same as if airlines have flight delays.

Maybe you misread the sign. Did it say 30 minutes or 30 seconds?

Delete

Not to worry, if it does happen to come to hand please stick it up.

There have been four threads altogether and I think I posted in all. I find it hard to recall all the docs posted.

Just one small quibble, I don't blindly admire DRS.

Well then, as I said in my post they were

wrong.

It's not relevant to DRS trucks anyway because they only contain recyclables.

I didn't say I know where it came from.

I just know that there is nothing in an RVM that could produce the smell of landfill gas.

During the week I saw a promotions crew for a 'rather large' drinks company giving out free cans of their drinks at a train station, no deposit return fee was required, not sure if the cans had the logo on them or not, is this allowed? Reason I ask is a couple of weeks back Vodafone were giving away free cans of Coke Zero that could be redeemed in SuperValu but when you went to collect you had to give over the 15cent.

If they paid the deposit they can give them away.

Vodafone could have paid the deposit for those if they'd wanted to

More of a failure really, the end user is not arsed walking a few miles with a fully intact can to find a working machine to get back 15c.

I suppose that's slightly less **** than the current situation.

Just gone quiet maybe.

you're mixing up two entities there.

"retailers" meaning people higher up in offices who haven't worked on the front lines of supermarkets in years if ever

and "retailers" meaning the underpaid, overworked staff who already often have barely enough time to get everything done in the day.

Some models have scanners "in" the belt, the belt being two belts rather than one solid belt.

I was in SuperValu in Newcastle, the shop is practically brand new, large supermarket built within the last year. Lots of self-service checkouts. All have signs above “Please do not use ReTurn vouchers at self service. Please present vouchers to the till”

No explanation given, and I didn’t get a chance to ask the staff.

Maybe they believe the vouchers can be re-used?