@Fat Bear: I would engage with you if you stepped out from behind the pseudonym. In the meantime, do try to stop beating yourself up

@Jim O’Sullivan: someone got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning! These far away return centres you speak of are in nearly every supermarket in the country, hardly a massive inconvenience !

@Fr. Fintan Stack: The return machine requires that you deposit each container, one at a time, into the machine to retrieve your money, The green bin system has no such demand on one’s time. And the stink of stale beer/cider is disgusting.

@Hotirish: See my reply to Fat Bear.

@Jim O’Sullivan: Who is arsed going to the shop just to return bottles and cans though? See, I’m engaging with you even though you could be any one of the many Jim O’Sullivans in the country,

@Megan Ward: “Who is arsed going to the shop just to return bottles and cans though?” So you agree, it is a daft, intrusive and unnecessary scheme

@Jim O’Sullivan: Intrusive, not quite. A minor inconvenience, sure. Regardless of whether any of us think the scheme is a good idea or not (I’ve actually noticed less of that kind of rubbish lying around from pigs throwing them down, so that’s nice), no one is forcing any of us to make trips to the shop just to return them, so the ‘oh, but the extra journeys!!’ argument has been a moot point since the start. An admirable attempt to side-step the point in your reply, but you missed.

@Jim O’Sullivan: What increased car journeys?

@Megan Ward: The scheme forces people to travel to a machine to retrieve their money. The machine requires that you deposit each container, one at a time, into the machine, this is the valuable time many do not have to spare. The already-in-place green bin system has no such demand on one’s time. And the elephant in the room is the fact that many people, the disabled, the elderly etc cannot engage with the scheme and must rely on the kindness of others to retrieve their money or forfeit it. It is, for them. a tax.

@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: If you purchase a six-pack, and bring it home to consume it, you must return to the store to retrieve the deposit that was taken. Two trips instead of the one when the green bin system was being used.

@Hotirish: yes but they are regularly full any time I’m looking to empty mine. And they stink and they should be in a large carpark with a one for all use voucher nothing to do with shops you use . Like in Germany for instance they are not connected to any shop some I believe give you cash and also take glass bottles

@Jim O’Sullivan: The scheme forces people to travel to a machine to retrieve their money, which they can do when they are already going to the shop. Not an extra separate journey, no ‘increased car journeys’ to quote you directly.

You’re right about the disabled and the elderly and people who can only use online delivery services, but for the rest of us who have to go to the shop/supermarket regularly anyway, there is no need. That’s a fact, and if those people were your primary concern you’d have mentioned them in your first comment instead of trying to make out that we’re all being forced to make extra trips. It’s a pain in the swiss when a machine doesn’t work, which is exactly why I don’t make a trip solely to return bottles unless I’m going on a walk anyway and can pass a shop with a machine.

My biggest issue with it is that there is technology to easily and quickly allow people to get the money back into their bank account, I only used it in Amsterdam 3 months ago and had the money back within about an hour of returning the bottles, but they haven’t implemented it here. I don’t have an issue with having to make unnecessary journeys (alright Teresa Mannion) because that simply isn’t happening for anyone able-bodied who goes to the shop to buy the drinks in the first place. It’s not really a matter of opinion.

@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: the ones u need to take to empty your collection of empties we not all in walking distance of these machines . I saw recently a man with a wheelie bin emptying into the machine and then blocked the bloody machine

@Megan Ward: you are just dismissing the obvious problems, not debating them. I particularly find objectional your dismissal of the disabled, elderly etc. This is precisely what those who decided to implement this scheme did in

@Jim O’Sullivan: Sure. It’s only the exact same scheme in use in multiple other European countries for the last number of years, successfully so. It was always going to reduce waste as we know from other countries the results the return scheme brings. You seem angry that it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to which is quite comical. You do realise it is here to stay?

@Jim O’Sullivan: Where are the machines located. In the supermarket. Do the next time you go to the supermarket bring the bag of cans/bottles with you and use the money from it against the shopping you do on that rip that you were going to do anyway. It’s quite simple and this is just a dumb conversation.

@Jim O’Sullivan: What part of ‘you’re right about the elderly and disabled’ is dismissing them, exactly?

You’re not happy that you’ve been called out on your ‘Oh, it’ll actually ADD journeys and defeat the purpose’ spoof so you’re trying to move the goal posts, side step the rebuttal that it simply isn’t true and pretend I don’t care about the less privileged among us. No one is asking you to praise the scheme, we’d all be happier without it. Come back when you’re ready to engage honestly and not disingenuously. Not that I ever expect that from commenters here hiding who they are.

@Jim O’Sullivan: “Two trips instead of the one when the green bin system was being used.” oh, was that first trip to purchase the six-pack the person’s last time ever in a supermarket or shop? They were never going to go to one again to buy food or drink or household items, EVER? That’s crazy.

@Fat Bear: The shop i normally shop in doesn’t have a bottle return scheme, so now i either take my business elsewhere or i make extra runs. Also, in Dublin Airport, I get charged my bottle deposit tax, yet there is no place to return my bottle. If a store does not provide a return station, then said store should not be charging the bottle TAX, or at least these stations should be in public areas, not in private stores, so people walking down streets have an opportunity to return one of their purchases while out on a daily basis. It’s an absolute pain to have to queue in the likes of Aldi to get back the money forcibly taken. Its a tax and a marketing scheme to get people into stores to spend, not an environmental protection scheme.It has nothing to do with recycling, because we don’t recycle in Ireland anyway. At best, it’s loaded onto a big diesel-powered ship and sent to Europe. If companies were truly interested in the environment, plastic would be removed from drink packaging. Cans and glass, like in the past. It’s a well-known fact that recycling plastic is inefficient and only a once-off, as the plastic degrades each time it’s recycled. We don’t need more taxes for average people; it’s a con we are buying into. The solution is far more simple than overly complicated machines.Return to cardboard, cans, and glass. Big Oil might not be happy, but if it’s truly about the environment, so what? They should be made to feel a bit of pain, like the rest of us. Eliminate plastic bottles, and you solve a major part of the problem. It was easy to reduce plastic shopping bags, so the same can be done for drink bottles. And why is it just drinks that are being targeted? What about other containers like shampoos and the like?

@John Moore: “You do realise it is here to stay?”….unlike the Greens!

@Megan Ward: Seriously?

@Karen Marten: yeah they must make bigger ones to take a whole wheelie bin

@Megan Ward: Why are these recycling locations located in certain stores? Why not in public areas like most other countries. Why do these stores force us to use them to get refunds or store credit? If a store is busy, i either have to wait or come back another day. Unlike the self-praising, morally superior Jesus characters on this site, I have better things to do with my time than queuing up for chump change the government decided to take of me to benefit the person who handed them a big brown envelope. I can’t go to another store with my receipt. Why can’t they be linked to accounts like in some European countries and the refund deposited into my bank account? Its because this isn’t about the environment; it’s about getting foot traffic into stores. There is no magic recycling plant in ireland. Recycling is as bad for the environment, if not worse, than producing new plastic. Surely we should be looking to eliminate plastic, not reuse it. There is already this new invention called glass and aluminum, and I believe it can be easily recycled already. There’s still a litter problem, albeit with fewer plastic bottles. A more simple way to rectify the littering problem is to return waste management to local councils. Let our taxes pay for it like in the past. More bins on the streets and less chance of fly tipping because councils will be collecting waste regardless of whether you are a lazy dolehead who won’t pay for it or not. The public are fools being led to follow the cult of environmentalism while the culprits for all of it get away scot-free. We shouldn’t be recycling plastic; we should be eliminating it straight away and replacing drinks packaging with cans and glass. By all means have a deposit scheme for them. It would actually be more environmentally friendly the reintroducing plastics, if that even happens.

@Mike Carson: You must have missed the part where I said we’d all be happier without it, and as for ‘Why can’t they be linked to accounts like in some European countries and the refund deposited into my bank account?’ you also missed the part where I mentioned having used a similar scheme in Amsterdam only 3 months ago where I got the money back into my bank account quickly.

You seem to be under the impression that I commissioned, designed, and implemented the scheme all because I said that there’s no need for an extra journey just to return bottles and cans for people who had no issue going to the shop in the first place to buy them – that’s a fact. You bring them back the next time you go to the shop. I don’t drive, I don’t have a car to throw them in, I know there’s always a good chance of the machines not working since the rollout has been shite so I don’t go to the shop just to return them unless I fancy going on a walk, as I said.

I’m not sure what part of pointing out that most people go to food shops regularly is self-praise or espousing moral superiority, but if your rant about things I didn’t say made you feel better then good for you.

@Jimmy Wallace: Sure don’t over-word your contributions!!!

@Jim O’Sullivan: Do you go to the machine multiple times a week with a few bottles? Then your Frankly stupid. Once a week when going shopping anyways. No extra journey. It’s not rocket science ffs

@Fr. Fintan Stack: Well, it’s only no extra pollution if the cans and bottles are actually recycled, reports suggest only about 10% of plastics get recycled.
Why not revert back to glass it indeed speed up new materials such as described in an article entitled

100% biodegradable plastic made from barley, decomposes in just 2 months

@Fat Bear: have to agree, just back from Spain and saw no litter anywhere

@John Moore: except they are not all connected to supermarkets . That’s the mistake we are bound to supermarkets in stead of a coucil thing .in stead of public areas. Like car parks

@Peter Byrne: Can’t see it happening as it would damage coffee shops too much. Much more likely a higher tax on the cups

Most coffee cup lids are made from plant or vegetable fibers@Gearoid MacEachaidh:

@Mike Carson: Should have come down hard on the sector, install accountability systems or maybe have them required to sell the plastic back to us and we recycle it, stop them selling it to China, etc… Easier to have idea in taxes here tho, no brains big enough to actually capitalise on the industry.

@Mike Carson: exactly butter tubs household items detergents and why not glass like in Germany there machines take glass

@Thesaltyurchin: There is no recycling in ireland. It really is just another tax at best, but in reality, it is designed to attract more people into certain stores just to generate more revenue. Why else can you only redeem you deposit at the store where you drop off your bottles.

@Karen Marten: Its funny how poorly we roll out schemes in this country. This bottle deposit BS being rolled out in Ireland is just a glorified marketing scheme designed to get more people into the shops that have collectors. If it truly was for the betterment of the environment, you should be able to bring the receipt from any machine to any shop that sells bottles and cans and take your deposit. From the get-go, collectors should never of been associated with specific shops. They should all be placed in a neutral public place, and every town and village should have one. The receipt should be able to be redeemed at any retail outlet that took the deposit in the first place.

@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: landfill or incinerated. No recycling in ireland

@Steve O’Hara-Smith: arrested, for what? You really are a timid little sheep. Sure, we all know you can beat someone unconscious in this wee country and get away with it, and you think you’ll get arrested of trying to swindle a recycling machine

@Philip Murphy: I think each code is unique, so it might be worth a try, but I doubt it will work. Also, the machine crushes the cans and bottles as they go in. Not like the vending machines of old. ;-)

@Ronan Mc: While I’m all for recycling, this tax is costing people money week in week out. You say it’s not a big deal to bring it with you the next time you do you shopping. If you have a car then that’s a good idea, however please consider the people who are mobility impaired and because they rely on a fixed state income they can’t afford a car. You are then relying on the goodness of your family or friends to bring back your empties and use their time to return the bottles. Many people use shopping delivery businesses to receive their shopping so they are stuck with the bottles until the goodness of a family member or friends come to the rescue.. Not everyone has a car and this tax is costing people who can’t afford it and were most likely recycling their plastics

@Niall Cunneen: So we should just can it then?
(See what I did there?)

@Sandra Lysaght: That would create a 60% increase in the whining over the higher deposit fee.

@Jack Hayes: It has not reduced the use of bottles or cans, as these are still being sold in mass. Show me a decline in the sales of Coca-Cola, Fanta, Evian, Prime, etc. If the reduction you claim is true, then the sales of these companies should be falling. As for plastic, it can’t be so easily recycled to the extent that most places don’t bother recycling it Its cheaper, more efficient, and actually less impactful on the environment from a production standpoint to create new plastic.
And where is this magic plastic bottle recycling plant in Ireland?
Where is the amazing positive impact this is having on the environment?
If litter is the issue, surely more bins and better waste collection services are what’s required, not a bottle tax solely developed to increase footfall to stores that roll out this scheme. The aim should be to eliminate plastic drink packaging if it is about the environment, and that can be readily done with cans and glass bottles. There is no actual need for drinks to be bottled in plastic, with maybe the exception of large 5-liter plus bottles of water, and the solution to that is to improve the quality of our drinking water to eliminate the need for them. It is a marketing scam created by Irish supermarkets in this country. If it were genuinely about recycling for the betterment of the environment, the machines wouldn’t be placed at stores, or at the very least, the receipt could be used in any shop, not just the one where the returns took place. If I use a recycling center in Tesco, I have to claim that money back in Tesco, even if the deposit was paid for in a Spar or Centra. If a shop can charge the deposit, they should be able to refund it regardless of where the item was returned, This is a marketing scam to get people into supermarkets who can afford to pay for these machines. Maybe if these supermarkets provided more bins around their stores and offered genuine facilities to “recycle” the plastics on all the products they supply, I could take the bottle “TAX” as a genuine green incentive. It’s just another levie directed at the consumer masquerading as a green initiative.

@Mike Carson: I rarely purchase these bottles and containers. I don’t care. I won’t live forever and then it’ll be someone else’s problem. Let’s do nothing. It’s easier and cheaper for us all.

@Jack Hayes: I never said we should do nothing. Im against doing something that misleads the general public and actually doesn’t achieve any of what it is pretending to do at the expense of the general public. The bottle deposit scheme does not have any impact on the environment; its a marketing ploy to get people into shops. A really substantial move would be to ban plastic drink containers full-stop. I do buy drinks in plastic bottles, and I toss them in a bin. I’m lucky enough to be able to absorb the cost, and it doesn’t impact my pocket. I actually just avoid buying more environmentally friendly multi-package cans and opt for larger plastic bottles now to avoid paying the bottle tax. I also notice the larger supermarkets are doing deals on multipacks anyway and absorbing the cost of the bottle tax to entice more people into their shops. The return scheme is not for the environment; it is purely to enhance the profits of the large supermarkets that are rolling it out. Again, I’ll ask, Where is the plastic recycling plant in Ireland? It would be more inline to force multinationals like Coca-Cola Corporation into providing more sustainable containers rather than applying extra costs to consumers, bans on selling the produce in plastic containers would be a start. You can go and be all smug and be deluded into believing that a deposit on a bottle will improve the environment. It is people like you who don’t question and just accept everything you’re told that are the real problem. Maybe look into the environmental impact of the recycling process for plastic on the environment. Just because it was done in other places does not mean it will work here either. Again, where is the plastic recycling plant? You spouted some random nonsense about this deposit scheme reducing the use of cans and bottles; it shows how ignorant of what’s going on you really are.