Deposit return scheme (recycling)

CalamariFritti

I think it's a bit of both. Machines not quite up to it (yet) and people feeding the wrong stuff or being thick about it.

When dealing with the general public 'thick about it' is not something to be dismissed IMO. It only takes one eejit in a few hundred to ruin things for everyone. Shop lady told me the other day they had a couple of lads just dumping large black bags with rubbish by the side of the machines. Not bottles or recyclables just rubbish. Walked in dumped them there walked out. That didnt mess up the machines but gives an indication of what some people are up to. And I would believe it. There are only very few eejits thankfully but some of those are Olympic grade, so yes I would believe it.

Also I think - and I have nothing to back this up with only my personal experience - 1 in 7 machines down at any given time seems a little generous. My personal experience is more like 60:40 or 50:50.

SteM

My experience has been no where close to 50:50 tbh. Maybe I've been lucky.

bluedex

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122068256#Comment_122068256

I used to really like when we could pay less for the drinks and walk out the back door to put the cans and plastic bottles in our recycle bin, Vs paying more, having to store empties somewhere and then bring them to a machine in a shop that might or might not work.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122069675#Comment_122069675

Designing a machine meant to be used high frequency by all members of the general public, and then coming out with lies like that.

What a bunch of lying incompetent weasels, enabled by other lying incompetent overpaid weasels in Re-turn and Government.

downtheroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122069785#Comment_122069785

In a recycle bin that you already pay for.

And keep putting your milk cartons in that bin, not in the RVMs.

I've got a 1 litre plastic yoghurt carton here to go in my green bin, but the 200ml fruit shoot my kid just drank has to go back to an RVM for a 15cent rebate.

None of this makes sense.

jj880

Makes sense to Ossian and his pals.

https://giphy.com/gifs/67ThRZlYBvibtdF9JH

The Continental Op

So first time using the machine. Aldi machine and 14 identical perfect Aldi's own Tonic Water cans (150ml sold as x8 multipack) + one with a big ding in it. 11 cans went through although 5 or 6 needed at least two if not more tries. Damaged one went through first time. Three other identical cans didn't (tried both machines and even gave the cans a polish up). Got my 45p back at the checkout.

Not a stellar start from my point of view.

SteM

I can't understand why a machine will accept some cans from a multi batch but not others. This doesn't seem like the sort of thing that will be fixed and will just be a quirk of the system that people will be expected to put up with.

You got your money back at the till but lots of people would just dump them and take the loss, then not bother next time.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070051#Comment_122070051

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070079#Comment_122070079

That's interesting that Aldi lived up to their responsibility and reimbursed the 45 cent.

This needs to become the norm.

tohaltuwi

I have only used the machine twice, Aldi in Nutgrove. Only one machine on site and it gets filled quickly. However everything I put in was accepted, I have a knack with “shaping” bottles for the scanner 😁 which probably comes from decades of experience scanning reused mis-shapen barcodes on library books before RFID became the norm in the libraries.

cbreeze

I wish the can makers would make the return it logo bigger so it's easier to see if you are picking one up off the street to boost your old age pension😉

Tin Foil Hat

Even the minister admitting it's a sh1tshow . https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/deposit-return-scheme-reliability-not-good-enough-minister-admits-as-our-survey-reveals-extent-of-issues/a1832644804.html

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122069502#Comment_122069502

"Police state, new leaders, crackdown."

Relax, it's just someone from the council calling to have a chat with a few shopkeepers.

JayRoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122069675#Comment_122069675

"Some people just don't like change".

"There may have been issues with people attempting to return cans that aren't in scope".

Eh, no, we know what we're at, thanks.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122069982#Comment_122069982

You can probably thank the lobbying power of the dairy industry for that.

Tin Foil Hat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070266#Comment_122070266

I think it's much more likely that the government knew that there would be a huge backlash if families had to go through this nonsense every time that they wanted to put a few litres of milk in the fridge.

Escapees

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070117#Comment_122070117

Have to agree that I also find the RVMs fairly robust when it comes to dealing with crushed cans/bottles and even 'roadkill' (cans that have been flattened by cars driving over them!). I generally partially crush all plastic containers and cans beforehand now so that I can fit more in a bag, in the confidence that they will be accepted by the RVMs. When it comes to roadkill cans, so long as the barcode is relatively intact, I just bend the flattened can along its length so that it has some height to it to satisfy the RVM acceptance criteria.

BorneTobyWilde

The issue with the scheme is every store that registered for manual returns to avoid buying a machine, doesn't actually take manual returns, and no one is enforcing the rules on them, same with those who have machines, if machine is down, they're suppose to take cans/bottle back over the counter, and again no will take them back manually

these rules need to be enforced. Someone needs to go into Dunnes when a machine is down, and pour a big bags of 100 cans on the checkout,

vafankillar

went to get some shopping in dunnes & filled my backpack with empty bottles, one machine in dunnes was rejecting every bottles despite having the logo. then had to wait about 10 minutes while another lad put in nearly a whole trollies worth to use the other machine which worked fine. even while waiting the 10 mins i'm wondering wtf do i do if it's rejected again? waste time walking to another supermarket? just leave them there and waste the deposit money? save them for another day and have to buy a bag since my backpack i was gonna use for shopping is still full of empty bottles?

think i might in future just start putting them in the black bin like some other posters here. it's really not worth the effort & nuisance

vafankillar

haven't actually done much research on this scheme tbh and mostly just posted on personal experience, but had a quick search cos i kept hearing people say how every single other european country has this and it works perfecty blah blah blah. how the hell is this every other european country? (green active, yellow planned, grey doesn't have it)

vafankillar

on the flip side, I got very little training with the machine after it was installed last week, manager was given a brief introduction & after that we're just learning as we go. have had quite a few problems with it so far, which usually solves itself after we open it up & turn it on and off again. which is a pain in the hole. we're understaffed and busy enough as it is without wasting 5-10 mins multiple times a day just so a custeromer can get 30 cent or whatever back. i can understand why some shops might be simply turning the machines off & pretending they're out of order if it's busy or just keep having problems.

our machine is different to other ones i've seen which is unbelievably stupid. you have to press the start button on it , while others i've used you just starting inserting the bottles/cans. if you dont press start it often causes problems. why make models with different procedures ffs?

it's also seems quite dangerous imo and when you open it up there really is a lot of fast metal moving parts. i think it's only a matter of time before some employee get seriously injured

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070744#Comment_122070744

In one Lidl the girl who trying to fix the machine for me was sticking her hand in the chute trying to clear the stuck can - said to her are you mad, don't be doing that, you'll end up losing your hand. They should have some stick for things like that

vafankillar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070874#Comment_122070874

something like a rubbish picker upper would be perfect. might mention to manager in work actually about getting one & keeping it for the machine.something similar should have been supplied with the machine

nachouser

There's a lad I work with probably on about 70k+. He has one can of 330m coke with lunch every day. Then on Friday he trudges off to the local rvm to return his five cans for the sake of 75c. It's like some people are just brainwashed into complying with this harebrained scheme. I joked that he could just bin them and I'd give him a euro a week instead.

BorneTobyWilde

Returned two full bags to Dunnes machine today, took em all, 17 euro returned

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070700#Comment_122070700

Yip. The French have cancelled theirs to research ways of tackling plastic usage in general in conjunction with whatever they introduce to meet EU targets.

downtheroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070874#Comment_122070874

That'll be the end of the scheme, when some unfortunate retail worker on minimum wage loses an arm to an RVM

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070376#Comment_122070376

Could have been a touch of that too but the dairy industry definitely didn't warm to DRS.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122070485#Comment_122070485

I hope I'm not in the queue behind you when you decide to take that particular direct action 🙂.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122066226#Comment_122066226

You can trust them to know what they are doing. They are a big supplier to the food and beverage trade.