Deposit return scheme (recycling) - Part 2

If you cycle from Dundalk to Newry on the hard shoulder, you will get a close up view of the rubbish along the road. Much worse in the North.

This was the second post in reaction to it:

To be honest, that's a crock of $#&

That is extreme, and when people say To be honest, it is not a good sign. I am always honest here, without needing to point it out. Then we have this extreme Flight of Fancy, completely detached from reality:

"Now wait a minute. No one mentioned Julie Morgenstern (praise her). Game changer for me.

I used to park my car upstairs until JM (praise her) came up with the idea to park outside. Lads, I cannot tell you how much space this has saved in the house. Well, approx 1 car's worth of space, actually. If landing spaces are her new thing then I am all in.

Oh JM (praise her), bequeath upon us the correct method for storing our empty containers, lest we are inefficient in our storage or woefully inept in the pristine condition our containers must be in. Allow us also, JM (praise her) to learn from Sarah, your organisational representative on earth. May she reign in power and in glory forever and ever, JM."

Is Tesco the only retailer where you can bring the DRS receipt back to any of their stores to spend it, I notice they have no store specific restriction printed on the receipt?

Now having the receipt being able to be used in any retailer who is part of the scheme would be like moving from the stone age in to the bronze age, perhaps that will happen within the next 10 years 🤔

Im getting used to it now, buying some drinks in bottles as you do wandering around town, dump them in a bin when finished, hope some homeless person finds them and consider it giving to the homeless so dont worry about the extra cost, was that the idea though? lol

I didnt think of that , just leave the empties beside the bin , I dont want to be a litter bug but seems reasonable in this new reality

Someone posted a pic of a ring around bins in Germany (?) so bottles cans could be left... no need to root through dirty bins.

Return could be putting money into initiatives like that instead of doling out patronage for braindead puff pieces.

Say you bought one a day for five days every week, 15 cent ones. But allowing four weeks when you are away on your foreign holidays. That would add up to €36 every year. €36.

I posted a pic along with a couple of other contributors to the thread.

Trials are going ahead in Dublin.

It's up to each local authority because they own the bins.

No reason why Re-turn wouldn't sponsor them and maybe have their brand on them.

https://www.thejournal.ie/recycling-trays-trialled-to-discourage-people-going-through-bins-plastic-bottles-6458666-Aug2024/#:~:text=These%20'bottle%20rings'%20are%20brilliant,looking%20for%20cans%20and%20bottles.&text=%E2%80%9COne%20or%20two%20are%20being,to%20see%20if%20they%20work.

#2217 Another ring tender going out.Probably to a buddy in the fabrication trade

You're overcomplicating simply rinsing out a can. A little water in a can, swill around, pour out. Drying not required. Toss in bag. I do it all the time at home and out.

Ok. Carry on.

I was at a "recycling" centre on Friday. I was getting rid of a load of garden waste, car is weighed on the way in, you tell them what you're getting rid of, and you're weighed again on the way out, and then you pay. It cost €10, but that's not the issue.

There was a bit of a queue, there was a skip truck, and a jeep with a trailer full of what I think was household green bin waste. So eventually it's my turn, it's a massive outbuilding and the guy just dumps the lot on the ground. Everything is mixed, and I mean everything. There's no separation, I thought there would be designated areas for general waste, green bin and brown bin waste. Then a guy came along on a front loader and scoops it into a huge pile containing every imaginable kind of waste.

So I'm wondering what happens to all of this rubbish? Is it incinerated? Outside I can see there's a pile of waste metal, so they must separate that at least. But apart from that, I was just thinking we're being put through this massive inconvenience with DRS, meanwhile there's places there's places like this right throughout the country. Am I missing something?

I see the odd person on the streets of Dublin with a black bag picking up discarded cans and bottles to make a few quid. That's the biggest positive for me

18 packs of 330 ml cans of Diet Coke are available for €14 in Dunnes until 18 September. And Tesco with a Club Card until 01 October. Plus deposits of course.

Probably means there's another scam on the way for all them. Then once all rubbish is covered, the streets should be sparkly clean....

So still 50% than the same cans going north. Ignoring that rhe 18 pack seems to be for Ireland only as you can still get 24 packs in the North. For £7. Although they seem to be trying to roll out the 18 pack there too.

We'll also ignore that the price difference between the regular coke and the sugar free versions are too close for the sugar tax to be accounted for properly. So we're either underpaying the regular coke (we're not) or the sugar free is priced higher than it should be. CCPC don't seem to care about that even though I brought it to their attention.

Actually, what do the ccpc do? Because as far as I can tell they just watch prices increase and say nothing.

Oh, you're right, the special offer was €10, sometimes €8. Standard price was €12. But it went on offer at least once a month. Now, it was about 2 months or more ago when they were last on sale for €10, €14 is the new special data collection price (in Tesco) but even that is not around very often anymore. €17 is the standard price now. So €5 increase in 4 years on top of a 25% volume reduction.

So for reference, in 2020 the standard price of 24 diet coke was €12, often on special for €10 and sometimes on special for €8. Breaking that down:

€12 - 50c a can

€10 - 42c a can

€8 - 33c a can

Now, its standard €17 for 18, sometimes of offer for €14, and rarely get the €10 offer anymore. Breaking that down:

€17 - €1.05 a can

€14 - 77c a can

€10 - 55c a can

So even the cheapest offer now is more expensive than the most expensive offer back then. CPI don't track that?

I've also heard that per can it costs Coca-Cola 10-20c, up from the 1c to 5c I read years ago.

I see those disposable cups and lids dumped everywhere. They're a way bigger scourge than cans and plastic bottles. And realistically, how often do you see discarded 2 litre plastic bottles? Sure you see the odd one, but not many.

Where I am, the 2 litre are probably as common, in proportion to the number of them on sale compared to smaller ones. But it is a bit of a futile exercise using just what you and I are seeing. I noticed a few 5 litre ones as well.

Have a look at the plans in the Circular Economy legislation for coffee cups and much more. I expect if and when those measures come in, it will provoke an almighty Irexit type reaction. About "Brussels" forcing us into Nanny Statism.

The only things Brussels is forcing on us are targets. The "reaction" will be against whatever money grubbing solution our lads come up with for disposable cups and lids. Similar to how it is now with Re-Turn.

It really is tiresome reading this fabrication again that everything is being forced on us by the EU. So for the umpteenth time. Our gombeens put Re-Turn together. Not the EU.

"And only those who choose not to get their refunds are losing out."

That's BS. People at airports aren't choosing not to get their refunds. DRS machines swallowing empties without giving credit isn't people choosing not to get their refunds. People bringing minerals to sick people in hospital aren't choosing not to get their refunds. I've listed numerous other examples before.

That's not to mention the needlessly created hassle and nuisance of bringing empties back to shops, when there was a perfectly viable option working before of putting them in their green bin at home, at work, etc. Or having to come back again, when the DRS machine is inevitably out of order.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. This is nothing more than another environmentalist scam. Someone is making big money out of this.

But our Minister said,

"One of the big learnings that we took away from our examination of the Deposit Return Schemes in other countries was that everyone in the Deposit Return Scheme chain has to be paid for their work." Yeah right! So I pay the deposit, clean the cans, store the cans, sort the cans, and bring them to a machine hoping it is working. Where's my fooking payment?

And in the meantime, I pay an increased rate since DRS for kerbside waste collection including a recycling bin which used to take these recyclables!

Mine has stayed the same so far, but it has been going up over the years. Did yours tell you they put up the price because of DRS? What reasons did they use for increases before DRS?

As far as I know, nothing has changed since July. All we had before was the waste companies feeding sob stories to the papers. People should be very suspect of these chancers.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2024-07-10/23/

"Household waste collection in Ireland is mainly carried out by private companies – operating in a competitive market under a local authority permit system.

The Department is currently engaging with the Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) and other stakeholders such as REPAK – to quantify what substantive impact, if any, the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will have on the waste collection system in Ireland over the longer term."