635 MILLION CONTAINERS have been collected through the Deposit Return Scheme since its launch in February.

Consumers have claimed back deposit refunds worth €110 million, according to new figures released by the Department of the Environment.

Additionally, €70,000 has been collected through the scheme’s Return for Children charity initiative.

The scheme that was introduced this year involves customers paying a deposit on plastic and aluminium beverage containers of 15 cent or 25 cent, depending on the size of the product.

Customers can then return the bottle at a reverse vending machine or to certain other locations and receive a voucher to claim back their deposit.

In ordinary recycle bins, where lots of different types of materials are disposed of together and contamination is common, plastic bottles are often no longer of ‘food-safe grade’ and must be recycled into lower-grade types of plastic, which means new plastic must be used to create more bottles.

However, the more sanitary process of collection through the Deposit Return scheme means the plastic can be recycled into a bottle again more frequently, reducing the amount of new materials that are consumed.

The monthly collection rate through the scheme has reached an average of more than 100 million containers. 

The figures give an insight into the large volume of single-use plastic and aluminium products that Irish consumers are purchasing and discarding every month. 

Earlier today, the European Commission published figures for 2022 showing that 41% of plastic packaging waste was recycled overall in the EU.

On average, each person living in the EU created 36.1 kg of plastic packaging waste in 2022.

Ireland was among the lower performing countries, recycling only 32.1% of plastic packaging waste last year. 

Slovakia, Belgium, Germany and Slovenia had the best recycling rates of plastic packaging waste, at 59.6%, 54.2%, 51.1% and 50.9% respectively.