The reverse vending machines will accept both plastic PET drinks bottles and aluminium cans. For every unit deposited a customer will receive a €0.10 voucher in return with a maximum voucher limit of €2.
Currently only Lidl in Glenageary will accept empty cans and bottles
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0903/1244522-lidls-deposit-return-scheme/
Council's operate the bins in both GB and NI and their record isnt exactly stellar. I would definitely agree that the ROI market needs better regulation though.
"Over 900 million aluminium drink can are sold in Ireland each year. In 2019 the recycling and recovery rate was 79% (2019 figures) – pretty good, but we think we can do better!"
The countries where this scheme was a "success" started at very low recycling rates, in many cases they did not have green bin schemes at the time. In these cases maybe you can justify the extra expense/hassle to consumers, and the enormous damage the scheme itself causes to the environment. When the rate is already very high (79%) there is no justification for it, other than to line someones pockets.
To the best of my knowledge there is no definitive recycle rate for plastic bottles. Repak have quoted me a figure of ~65% for research i was doing. The overall plastic recycling rate in Ireland is under 40%.
Recycled rates on plastic bottles are lower than cans because they are consumed in different settings. The majority of drink cans in Ireland are sold in multipacks mainly for at home consumption. The majority of bottles are sold on the go. Thus the recycling rate is much much lower.
Again, regardless of the 79% alupro figure, that is a figure for recycling, and again does not deal with the issue of quality of recycling. Alupro are very big supporters of DRS - check their website. They are also particularly supportive of the variable rate proposed in Ireland. Their only main point of difference is they want glass included in schemes.
Thanks for the tip the Alupro website is interesting.
I guess they have a good reason to want glass included.
If consumers change to glass bottles to avoid the deposit Alupro members stand to lose business.
You are working of the assumption that it will definitely improve our recycling rates.
Yep. Its more of a UK issue. Alupro arent very active in Ireland, like most of the packaging bodies, they are GB based but open to Irish members. Also worth noting that that 79% figure is an industry figure - i've never seen that verified. Its probably not far off right. It may well be based either on an estimate based on sampling or even transposing uk numbers. We're similar enough markets.
Its a pretty safe assumption based on results from other countries
The Netherlands is the only outlier and that was due to a limited scope which has now changed more in line with the rest of Europe so expect to see their % climb to similarly high levels
The flip side is, there is no evidence, from any country, that such a scheme will result in the status quo or worse in terms of recycling %'s.
Unless you know of any of course, in which case, by all means share
Is it not the case though that most of those countries introduced the scheme when recycling was in its infancy ?
Also that link is to the company providing the recycling. A massively vested interest.
lol @ the search for excuses
By all means find alternative sources yourself so if you don't like mine, they all say the same thing
Also, on the infancy point, there are DRS schemes going live in European countries on an ongoing basis and long after recycling came along. You are definitely right in relation to Germany. Plenty have gone live in the last decade though. The balance across the EU will all be going live by 2029
interestingly, the one thing the sceme in Germany hasn't done is increased the amount of reusable containers, single use has still gone up fron 50 to 80 per cent.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/has-germany-hit-the-jackpot-of-recycling-the-jurys-still-out
Definitely not. Kerry Co Co still operate a refuse service in Killarney, though not in the rest of the county.
NI council tax is lower than property tax here ?
My only experience of council tax was London and it was hefty. Got a lot back for it though.
I did find London way way behind us on recycling and still had no bag levy when I moved over in 2013 but we're catching up.
Is it only me that sees the irony in Lidl and Aldi seem to use more single use plastic in their product packaging than any other store.
It is only you because all supermarkets are going to have these by law.
But I don't see Dunnes, Supervalue or Tesco doing this yet? Aldi and Lidl will use this to promote green credentials and carry on using the cheapest single use plastic on most of their products.
I've seen the facility in other stores but not operational yet. They must be waiting for the official go live.
Dunnes have it in Naas a long while .. many months ... often very busy .. often broken down .. just 1 machine .. I'd love to see the say monthly figures .. including hours running / not running / plastic v's alu / cause of breakdown etc.
SuperValu and spar near me have this on site now but no money is being given yet just a little thanks message
Lidl had a little PR coup by starting early, but the facilities are being installed at supermarkets all around the country at the moment for Feb go-live next year. The local Supervalu near me already has theirs installed, but its taped off and likely won't open until Feb
Ah funny you should mention that. Local supervalue for sometime has had a huge box thing near the front door. Its next to the parking ticket machine and looks part of it but that probably looks a similar size to the Aldi recycling thingy.
This is the one at my local, maybe yours looks similar
Thats very similar to the Aldi one including the two roller shutters but the Supervalu one is inside a covered walk way and takes up about half that space.
No money yet because you don't pay a deposit yet.
The cans that will pay back the deposit will have a marker/barcode to show a deposit was paid.
I can see all manner of shite been put into these machines.
If it doesn't have the right barcode is will likely get spit back out. Thats what happens in existing machines
Spit back out but not with the force of Maximum Overdrive we trust...
In fairness you'd need a lot of time on your hands to be using one of those machines to dispose of rubbish.
I reckon maybe a few will mess with them when they are a novelty but they'll get bored and move onto some other shenanigans.
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Ah here just try reading what I posted 😄
I was referring to the other poster who said people would put rubbish into the machines.
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