Consumers embrace Ireland’s first bottle deposit return scheme

Since February, 630m empty cans and bottles have been deposited at reverse vending machines

After initial consumer confusion and irritation, Ireland’s first ever bottle deposit return scheme has finally been embraced by the public, with 111m containers returned in August – up from 2m in February when the scheme launched – new data shows.

Re-turn, which was mandated by the Irish government, to implement the scheme as part of a bid to meet EU 90% recycling targets, said that in the eight months since February, 630m containers have been deposited at reverse vending machines up and down the country.

In what is the biggest behavioural shift since the plastic bag tax was introduced in 2001, returns have rocketed from 2m a month to 110m a month, according to the latest figures.

“Ultimately, it’s a pretty easy way of people feeling good about themselves, because a lot of people do want to do recycling, to do the right thing for the planet,” said Ciaran Foley, chief executive of Re-turn, the company tasked with implementing and running the scheme.

The scheme has also reduced litter on streets, raised money for charity and even helped homeless people and children raise small quantities of cash.

Similar schemes have stalled several times in the UK and previously been canned in Ireland, but they exist in many EU member states including Germany where legislation that took effect in 2006 means consumers are able to return both refillable bottles and single-use cans.

Ciava Dunning, a train driver on the Dublin Westport line, says she noticed people carry their rubbish off the train now, whereas before they left it behind, as they could now collect €0.15 (12p) per can and €0.25 per plastic bottle.

Speaking as she drops 63 cans and bottles into a reverse vending machine in the local Dunnes Stores supermarket, she says she was initially reluctant to collect the empties at home.

Dunning says: “I live in a house with four other girls. Most of this is the pre-mixed cans or fizzy drinks we buy during the week or bottles like Miwadi [an Irish soft drink concentrate].

“I didn’t like carrying around the bags and we weren’t too pushed about it, but then you don’t want to waste the €0.15 deposit, so you get used to it.”

Also at the machine is John Eustace, returning 44 bottles. “These are from the office. We take turns to come down here to do the returns and then use it to buy things like milk for the office. It’s like the office petty cash,” he says.

For a country with a population of just over 5 million, a return rate of more than 110m a month appears to be the seal of success. But with an estimated 1.7bn cans and plastic bottles put on the market every year, Ireland has some way to go.

As an EU member state, Ireland must increase that to 77% next year and 90% by 2029, all part of the bloc-wide effort to boost the circular economy.

A PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle can be recycled seven times, while cans can be recycled indefinitely.

For other countries such as the UK, which hope to launch its own scheme in 2026, Foley says the challenges should not be underestimated.

“When we went live, we got lots of resistance from the public,” he says. “Social media can be brutal. There were issues with the machines: retailers were taking time to get used to them so bins were filling up and were not being changed quickly enough. The public were also complaining they already had a perfectly good recycling scheme with their bins.”

Logistically, the preparations was also complex. Suppliers had to change production lines to introduce the Re-turn logo.

Then what happens if empty containers were smuggled in from Northern Ireland? Would supermarkets on the border be cheated into reimbursing cash on bottles bought in Derry or Armagh?

Supermarkets lay out between €12,000 and €25,000 for a reverse vending machine but get 2.2 cents for every container deposited, as their incentive. If too many cans were from Northern Ireland, the supermarkets would end up not reaching break-even targets.

In the end Re-turn persuaded suppliers including Coca-Cola, which operates an international barcode in 82 countries, to produce Irish-only barcodes.

“We are delighted with where we are, though we still have a lot to do,” says Foley.

Work is being done to decrease the number of containers thrown in public bins and at sporting grounds and public venues.

Croke Park, the national Gaelic football stadium, now has 400 red bins for containers, while on the street, Dublin city council is experimenting with a scheme to stop people rummaging through the bins. There have been reports that some homeless people desperate for cash walk around with universal keys that will open the doors of the rotund street bins.

Over the coming weeks, 80 bins in the city will be adorned with “surround shelves”, where consumers can discard their can or bottle without contaminating it with other materials while rummagers can easily take them to a shop for cash.

Cover photo: Ciava Dunning and John Eustace at a Re-turn reverse vending machine. Photograph: Lisa O'Carroll/The Guardian