Deposit return scheme (recycling) - Part 2

😔 Let's try this again. There's an Aldi near me, it has only one DRS machine and it spends more time out of order than actually working. This was it a few days ago.

This was it yesterday(Sunday).

This was it this afternoon(Monday), which I told a staff member about and was an easy fix.

So often I see bags of empties at the machine or by entrance/exit. People frustrated and just dump them. I happened upon the "reject items only" bin being emptied today. It filled a shopping trolley and more of people putting their empties in there when the machine isn't working.

And this has to be a regular occurrence. I seen the staff member then putting them into the DRS machine as I was leaving. It's not the first time I've seen it happening. I'd say the staff are only too delighted to see the machines "out of order". I don't know what arrangement they have on divvying up their proceeds. It reminds me of Groundskeeper Willie on The Simpsons with his retirement grease.

There was an elderly man with both hands full of large bags of empties on Sunday. I was talking to him, he was saying he looked like he had raided Electric Picnic, he had so much. He had to go back out to the car as the machine was broken, leave the bags there and come back in to do his shopping. I was telling him it wasn't as bad for me as I only had a few empties(he offered to take them for me, but then I'd lose out on this scam) and where the nearest other options were, but then of course his voucher would have to be used in that specific branded retailer. On his way out, I seen a bag of empties and was saying someone must have left them there out of frustration.

When I was leaving a few minutes later, the bag was gone. I don't know if that old man came back and took them or if a staff member got to them instead. The thought has crossed my mind to take these bags home myself, I'm sure that's what some people do when they see them left behind.

Also today, I had to wait several minutes as a guy ahead of me had a shopping trolley full of empties and was going to town on the machine. I managed to sneak a shot of the screen, it's a little blurry.

And that wasn't even the final count. Where the eff are you getting 250+ items? Maybe he had a house party.

That's a bit of a nightmare all right.

Is there another shop in the area with an RVM ?

If Aldi can't keep their one working it might be better to go elsewhere.

You can cash the voucher and do your shopping wherever you prefer.

As for the guy with 250 containers, he could be working somewhere that lots of containers get left behind.

Maybe a school or works canteen.

Thats a feature, not a bug! It prevents small children from running around.

Well I suppose this is better than irrelevant links + copy and paste dumps. Or bringing up soda water prices again. Points for effort. Your delivery could do with some work though.

Recycling bin and general waste bin now go out about once a month, if that, rarely even close to full. Given my provider has been acting the Michael about collecting compost recently, I'm thinking it's probably time to cancel the service altogether. Must be a fairly common occurrence around the country so charges will only go one way for those who still need their wheelie bins.

Oh and I've had no issues with the machines since I last posted, lest someone comes along to imply I'm trying to find out of order machines or some such nonsense.

Its some craic.

Would be interesting to see some monthly stats for total cans and plastic bottles sold over the last few years. At least then we could point to that as some kind of win because if it hasnt reduced this scheme is increasing carbon footprint due to the many reasons already discussed here.

....there are many videos on YouTube explaining the process.....

If you have a 2 litre plastic bottle, and it's crushed a bit, then it's wider than the outer "neck" of the machine.

However it's easy force this through the neck of the machine, the barcode gets read ok but at the next "neck" it gets stuck.

You can't force it along this time as it's too far in so the machine goes into lockdown faster than Tony Holohan can implement one.

Just checked, can't see a single video from ReScam showing how they separate and recycle what is going into RVMs. But you seem to know they're there, so an aul link would be great. I don't want to see how other companies do it, I want to see how ReScam do it.

Those 2 litre plastic bottles are quite pliable.

They can be manipulated back into shape.

You can also blow into them and they will pop out.

Don't do it with ditch finds though 😊

Their target is 90%. If they wanted everybody's money back, they wouldn't have screwed over people who get deliveries, those with mobility issues accessing RVMs with slots set too high for wheelchair users, people buying in ports or airports.

Your binmen are threatening an increase in charge because your friendly Return operators are using the revenue from selling on recyclables to fund their operation. That was previously offsetting the code of kerbside bin collections.

And spare us any fantasy legalese nonsense about you not having a contract with your friendly binmen specifying that.
That isn't worth the paper it isn't written on.

We're going over old ground yet again.

I've previously acknowledged the issues you mention, discussed them and even came up with a few possible solutions.

The binmen are doing exactly as I said in the post you replied to.

Jaysus 😂. Next time you return a container throw yourself in after it.

There have been several conversations here about the bin companies.

I think you are referring to when someone suggested that the bin companies should get statistics from Re-turn.

I pointed out that the bin companies would have their own figures for the amount collected before and after DRS introduction.

Hardly a hugely supportive intervention in favour of Re-turn.

No that's bullsh1t.

You don't go through all the containers at home manipulating them trying to second guess what issue the machine you decide to go to might have today.

That's being plain silly.

I'd an issue with perfect bulmers cans recently. I found I had to kink them to get the machine to scan them.

I was down in the south last weekend, and did a free shop at Dunnes having cashed in about 30 euro of cans and plastic bought in France and the north over the last couple of months. Thanks Return 🤣

Nice one.Very very niceeee

I meant to post yesterday that it's a new day, but it's the same old $h1++¥ banjaxed DRS machine.

I had a check before I left, and almost as usual it wasn't working. I was in there the day before, but was in such a rush, I never thought to check. I'll be in there later and must remember to check it.

So Re-turn want years of that, pocketing the deposits, not asking questions as to why 25% - 33% of items not being returned. Zero regard for flaky machines, for people who get deliveries.

The gombeens continue to gombeen.

That headline is framed like its a bad thing, but if 1 in 4 is not being recycled through the scheme, then 3 out 4 are, which is 75%. Then add in people who are still recycling through their green bin at home, then you are looking at ~80% recycled which is above the targets.

I predict that "bad news" is the precursor to an increase in the deposit.

Yes I think the media are beginning to question where the large amount of unclaimed money is resting.

Even if Re-Scam spend all the unclaimed deposits on "recycling initiatives", that leaves a hefty amount of interest to spend.

We recycled 79% of cans already in 2019, without any deposit scheme. (source: Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation Ireland)

The problem is that these cans went to the bin companies, then the drinks companies and their canners had to buy the aluminium from them at market rates. The DRS scheme was setup specifically so that drinks industry control aluminium collection and recycling. Drinks and can companies are the ones running the scheme.

When you buy a can of coke, you pay for the drink and the container, both are included in the price. You own the container, you paid for it. This scheme compels you to give your paid-for property away for free to the companies who sold it to you, so they can sell it back to you all over again. It's a money-making scam, disguised as environmentalism and forced on us by the government.

These are calculations made by a RTE journalist. Nothing to do with Re-Turn, other than using their monthly return numbers. They have made it clear that it will take a year to come up with any useful sales v returns data. But he did get a representative from the Retailers to make a guess that things will continue on the up and up. Which the raw return numbers probably indicates anyway. But impossible to know without the actual sales figures. The last time he had a go at this in May, at least he had the good grace to point out the obvious.

- "Given the open-ended nature of Re-Turn’s liability to redeem deposits, a return rate calculated over a short period will not yield good information as to the scheme’s performance."

https://www.rte.ie/author/968575-padraic-geoghegan/