"Green" policies are destroying this country

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Deposit return scheme provokes the law of unintended consequences

Good afternoon,

Results from Coca-Cola’s bottling arm this week were a reminder that the deposit return scheme doesn’t only drive additional recycling of plastic bottles and cans, but can reduce demand for them in the first place.

The company said that sales volumes in Ireland fell by “low-single digits” in the first six months of the year, in contrast to a small bump in its global sales. This occurred as consumers “adjusted to the impact of the [deposit return scheme] launched in February”, Coca-Cola bottling arm said.

While not stipulating the actual percentage decline in sales here, it’s clearly only marginal, but nevertheless is being attributed directly to the deposit return scheme.

While Coca Cola HBC has said it is “encouraging” to see the deposit return scheme progressing in line with plans, it has previously complained that it is not fair for companies like it to be expected to fund the new deposit return scheme and pay for litter clean-up costs.

The news comes after new figures from Re-Turn, the company behind the scheme, showed that 347 million drinks containers have been returned since the scheme opened in October.

3.2 million containers were returned every single day in July, with 102 million returns made across that month alone.

But at the same time as the numbers using the scheme have rocketed, new issues have begun to emerge around public waste management in Dublin.

While seagulls used to be the number one issue for refuse interference for Dublin City Council, it is now members of the public pulling apart bin bags and emptying public bins to gather bottles and cans that now have a monetary value.

Thing have gotten so bad that Dublin City Council is now going to trial a new system for its public bins, where a “holder” is attached to the outside of the bins for people to put cans and bottles into so that those who want to collect them can do so more easily.

If it sounds a bit like a bin attached to a bin, that’s because it kind of is. And once these mini-bins are attached, what is the likelihood they too will overflow, at least temporarily, resulting in yet more collateral waste from the deposit return scheme?

It’s a reminder that in the realm of policy making, the law of unintended consequences remains as true as ever.

Thanks for reading,
Daniel Murray
Policy Editor

I know several people who now shop the other side of the border instead. My brother does a monthly run and picks up several crates of cans and bottles for all the family. I personally get 4x 18 packs of coke etc, 2x boxes of Guinness and a bottle or 3 of spirits. So, huge savings overall (18 cans from NI is €9, closer to €19 here and alcohol is significantly cheaper too). Bulk buying offsets the cost of the tolls and petrol and sure what's a little extra carbon emissions?

Of course it's reported as a usage reduction here, the exchequer loses a little VAT, Diageo lose their MUP windfall and I keep the green bin collectors happy. Maybe I should print a few labels and play ReTurn at their own game. Sure what's a little wasted paper?

Prime Time doing a piece on solar farms tonight

I'm surprised RTE airing a piece like this, with the negative tones from people in relation to these developments.

Living standards are already horrific for many many people. The only way to solve that even with keeping population stable is to reduce consumption and waste. Reduce, reuse, recycle. But that might affect your living standards.

People don't want to be "green" because it means they might have to share resources fairly and be a lot less greedy.

Alternatively you can go live on another planet with more resources. Elon and Jeff will be looking for volunteers, from their castles in the sky.

The problem there for Greens is that when you scratch under the skin you endup with someone who used to be a Pinko Leftie

Climate change is just the latest crusade they have latched onto now that Russian and Chinese “communism” has either collapsed and then reborn as oligarchic dystopia or in case of China turned into dystopian techno fascism

There’s also a bit of a religious streak, the power of the Church has declined, but the millennialist Armageddon type beliefs have not went away and found a natural habitat in the end of days narratives

And the sad part is that IMHO climate change is a problem, a problem that requires policies, but due to their Pinko Leftie origins they oppose science and technology so you endup with bizzare hate of anything nuclear and weird opposition to adapting and use of geo engineering