Deposit Return Scheme hailed as a positive success in Cork

The introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and aluminium cans is one of the “most positive” consumer behaviour initiatives to happen in Ireland “for decades”.

This is according to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), who likened the success of the campaign to that of the smoking ban, which was introduced in Ireland more than 20 years ago.

The DRS, introduced by the department in February, has since seen 278 million bottles and cans returned, with the average daily rates now regularly exceeding three million containers.

This equates to €48 million in deposits refunded to consumers in-store, averaging just over €500,000 per day.

The scheme, implemented in major retailers across the country such as Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes Stores and SuperValu, aims to reduce the amount of litter across Irish towns, villages and countryside, by incentivising consumers to recycle their empty items using the on-site DRS collection machines.

In Cork, the top three Aldi stores in terms of returns are Ballyphehane, Midleton, and Carrigaline, with shoppers returning almost 2.4 million items in June alone, bringing the total number of items returned locally to almost six million since the launch of the scheme.

This equates to a total of €1 million in vouchers being issued in Cork to date.

The average Aldi store in Cork has processed more than 220,000 items since February, worth more than €37,000 in returned deposits.

This is slightly below the national average across all of Aldi’s 161 locations, which have handled an average of 264,000 items each since the launch of the DRS, worth almost €45,000 in returned deposits.

Plastics and packaging manager at Aldi Ireland, Jason Carolan said: “As we can see from the figures today, the DRS scheme has been very popular with Aldi shoppers.

“Since going live, the number of items being returned on a monthly basis has steadily increased.

“Customers have redeemed more than €7 million in cash and vouchers at Aldi stores, ensuring that more than 42 million items have been returned for recycling through the scheme.

“We’re sure that it will continue to grow from strength to strength.”

Managing director at TOMRA Collection Ireland, supplier of Aldi’s DRS machines, Peter Whelan said: “Having partnered with Aldi to supply their stores with our DRS reverse vending units, we are delighted to see its success t date.

“The volume of bottles and cans being processed through the machines located across Aldi stores show how customers are really embracing the Irish scheme.”

Prior to the introduction of the DRS, Ireland had one of the lowest rates of recycling of PET and aluminium drinks bottles and cans, with approximately only 60% of all drinks containers being recycled.

Similar schemes introduced across Europe have been successful in increasing this number in line with the EU target of 77% of all drinks containers to be recycled by 2025.

A spokesperson for Lidl Ireland said: “Lidl was the first retailer in Ireland to launch a deposit return machine trial in September of 2021, with two trial machines located at Glenageary, Dublin and Claremorris, Mayo.

“The purpose of the trial was to ensure a seamless, customer-centric process for shoppers to participate in the Irish government’s deposit return scheme.

“We have invested more than €50 million in rolling out two reverse vending machines in all our stores to ensure Ireland’s DRS is a success.

“Since the launch of the scheme in February, we are pleased to say that Lidl has processed millions of PET bottles and aluminium drinks containers through our 179 stores and three regional distribution centres in Charleville, Newbridge, and Mullingar.”

While the scheme seems to be accepted as a widespread success, Denis O’Flynn, fourth generation shopkeeper of O’Flynn’s grocers shop in Ladysbridge said that he believes the younger generation, specifically under 20s, have not yet taken to the campaign.

“What we’ve noticed is the young people, their habits haven’t changed, they’re still throwing bottles in the bin,” he said.

“They haven’t bought into it yet.

“There’s a lot more bottles being left on our tables out the front, I would pick up an average of five to seven bottles when I’m locking up every night – and myself and my wife return them then.

“From a national point of view, and a green point of view, it’s been a success,” he added.

NO DROP IN SALES

Mr O’Flynn stated that they have not seen a drop in sales at their store, but further revealed that refuse companies have said they are at a loss.

“They’re down on profit because they don’t have those bottles to recycle,” he said.

As a store that does not have on-site DRS collection machines, Mr O’Flynn said that following renovation works, they plan to implement one at their location to encourage future use of the scheme amongst customers.

“The education on the scheme hasn’t gotten down to the youth, they still walk away and leave the bottles behind them,” he said.

“We will be doing renovations shortly, so we will look to get one in the future, but we just don’t have the space for one at the moment.”

The latest Irish Business Against Litter results, published in June, provide an early indication that the DRS is contributing to lower litter levels nationwide, showing a 30% reduction in drinks cans thrown away and a 20% reduction in plastic bottles on our streets.

A spokesperson for the DECC said: “The results are very promising, particularly given that the DRS was still in the transition phase during the survey period.

“Participation in DRS has been very positive, similar to the plastic bags initiative, or the ban on harmful cigarette smoke in our workplaces.

“It is doing two vital things; reducing litter and combating the scourge of single-use plastics on the environment, by ensuring that these containers get separately collected for recycling,” they added.

“We fully expect DRS to achieve or exceed the ambitious recycling targets set in the EU Single Use Plastics Directive.”