1 August 2024: Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme has experienced rapid adoption in its first six months of operation. Re-turn, operator of the Scheme, has revealed that Irish consumers have returned over 347 million drinks containers since the launch of the Scheme on 1 February.
Public support for the Scheme has been growing over the past six months with significant rises in the number of bottles and cans being returned each month. In February, at the beginning of the Scheme, 2 million containers were returned which has now risen to an average of 3.2 million returns daily in July, totalling over 102 million returns for the month.
In line with the growing adoption of the Scheme, the Re-turn network of Deposit Return Points has grown by more than 870. There are now over 2,500 Reverse Vending Machines and 323 manual return points nationwide.
Adoption and habits
A key goal of the Deposit Return Scheme is to educate consumers on the benefits of separately collecting and recycling PET plastic and aluminium drink containers, rather than disposing of them in home recycling bins or general street bins.
By returning all in-scope drinks containers to one place through the Scheme, consumers are enabling the collection of a higher quality of recyclate material than through dry mixed recycling. This separation allows for the continuous recycling of aluminium and enables plastic bottles to be recycled up to seven times.
According to a recent survey by Re-turn, 84% of consumers have now used a Reverse Vending Machine* since launch and support for the Scheme currently stands at 74%.
Over half of consumers (59%) bring their empty drinks containers back when their bag or box is full at home while 36% bring them back whenever they do a grocery shop.
When the voucher has been issued, one in five (20%) opt for their cash back while 62% redeem the voucher immediately against grocery purchases.
Return for Children
In June, in partnership with six of Ireland’s leading children’s charities, Barnardos Ireland, Barretstown, Childline by ISPCC, Jack & Jill, LauraLynn Children’s Hospice, and Make-A-Wish Ireland, ‘Return for Children’ was launched.
The goal of this initiative is to reduce mixed litter at events and provide attendees with the option of donating their bottle and can deposits at designated Re-turn bins, with all deposit return proceeds going to the six charities.
Ciaran Foley, CEO of Re-turn said: “We have seen incredible engagement with the Scheme during its first six months in operation, particularly considering that this included a four-month transition period. The immediate impact, as shown in the recent Irish Business Against Litter survey, has been more than we could have anticipated. The nationwide research found that almost 30% fewer cans and 20% fewer plastic bottles are littering streets. It is fantastic to see these results in just the first six months of the Scheme, and we are expecting these figures to rise.
We have also seen tremendous participation among community and charity organisations, including schools, GAA clubs and tidy towns groups, who have been collecting containers as part of their fundraising efforts. Over 140 community and non-profit organisations across the country are now working with Re-turn to carry out fundraising efforts which we are supporting by providing facilities and advice for each project. While I believe we have come a long way, we are continuing to explore new ways to grow the adoption of the Scheme in the interest of the environment and communities across Ireland.”
Progress made since launch
Drinks Containers returned in Months:
2 million containers February
20 million containers in March
51 million containers in April
78 million containers in May
90 million containers in June
102 million containers in July
Daily Average of Drinks Containers returned in Months:
69,000 containers a day in February
670,000 containers a day in March
1.7 million containers a day in April
2.5 million containers a day in May
3 million containers a day in June
3.2 million containers a day in July