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/
I already put all of my home plastic waste in my recycling bin, now I have to keep them aside, account for all of them and bring them back to the shop. Its stupid
course I do. I’m never in Lidl though.
So, not a significant loss in money, but zero loss in time and effort, and no difference to the recycling outcome?
You have been doing the right thing all along but others haven't.
All you will get from the new system is inconvenience and the hope that Recycling rates will improve and littering will reduced.
I'm in the same boat and I've become resigned to it.
My strategy is to reduce the number of plastic bottles and cans that I use.
Any deposit containers I do use I will return to get the money back because I hate all types of waste especially money 🙂
There are going to be machines in a lot more places than Lidl
Lidl's trial has nothing to do with the national system that is being rolled out currently.
I usually get a nice meal for 2 including a bottle of house wine in a local restaurant for €75-€100, so I wouldn't consider it an insignificant amount of money.
Apparently we can look forward to better recycling rates and less litter.
Agree that the system is an unnecessary extra step for those that already recycle.
But it will be every Supermarket in the country soon enough..
So there should be a return spot at Dunnes/Tesco/SuperValue et al eventually..
Still a pain in the arse though..
They will probably qualify for an exemption from refunding but will still have to collect the deposit.
You won't have to go to Lidl.
All big supermarkets will participate.
Couldn't they just do it for the cans and bottles you buy from the cold fridge in a shop, I'd imagine that is whats contributing to the litter not the 12 pack of water I bring home that goes in the bin at home.
I've changed to buying the 5 litre bottles of water already.
Maybe this will lead to more 5L kegs of beer being available.
I wonder how beer would survive in cartons/boxes? It's already being done with wine on a small scale.
I still won’t be bothered for the sake of a couple of quid. Or even, as mentioned, one nice meal out a year.
Been using a big water filter for about the last 5 years
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Berkefeld-Stainless-Gravity-Fed-Refreshing-Emergencies/dp/B09PRLVSD6/
The filters are expensive (about €80 a year) but still much cheaper than the bottled water we were buying.
btw reason for the the bottled water was that our IW can be foul at best it has far too much chlorine in it at worst its green. I can easily taste the difference in tea made with the filtered water compared to plain tap water.
Does anybody here know or can confirm. When the machines become operational will they be giving out cash or can you tap a credit/debit card to get your deposit returned?
Vouchers that you can get the cash for in the adjacent shop. Or buy more booze with, or indeed any other shopping
That complicates things somewhat but not aufully
One nice convenience this will bring for me personally is there's no more need to rinse the cans before bringing them back
I would expect some breweries to go to / back to glass, which isn't covered by the scheme. Only a few still do their full range, or near to it, in glass; some never have and many of the big breweries offer very little in glass
I will just stop buying cans rather than go through the rigmarole. Not that I buy much locally (I go to NI) but if I need something it will be glass bottles or nothing.
I've already stopped posting deals on beer in cans in the deals thread in anticipation of the scheme.
Is it worth it?
After even more sorting at home and taking your bottles and depositing them in the machines for refund you are only allowed to cash up to a €2 voucher in any one shop transaction.
I go supermarket shopping twice a week for all my grocery needs. I am only going to get €4 per week back. Hardly worth bothering for €4 per week. Will just put it down to another cost of living hike.....but what if you have more than €4 per week of refunds, do you have to go to supermarket every day to buy stuff and get refunds. If you don't it will be a very high cost of living hike indeed!
Insane if you ask me.
Of course the gov will have thought this through already..going to make a mint aren't they !
Why do you think you will only get 2 quid back.
Any restriction on returns is likely only to be in very small premesis and will be a lot bigger than that.
Anyone with a Reverse Vending Machine will be looking to get the bottles and cans in, because they get a handling fee on every one of them.
Glass bottles are hardly more convenient, you've still got haul them off somewhere to recycle them (my waste provider used to provide a glass bin, we going backwards here).
The €2 limit is on Lidl's trial only
Lidl's trial is giving lots of people incredibly wrong ideas of how this will work - I've seen someone else complaining that you'll only get 10c back on a 15c deposit, due to Lid's trial giving 10c.
Lidls trial is not connected to the national system. It will be replaced by the national system with the full deposit refunded and no limit.
The system isn't going to make money for the government. The Lidl trial system costs Lidl money as there are no deposits at all.
But is any retailer going to want someone with a hundred cans feeding the machine putting others off using the system?
Your only going to need to face a couple of queues to use a machine to start thinking about not bothering in future?
I mean that's kind of the point of the system, its so much hassle to you and the extra cost that you reduce your plastic usage.
Someone doing a huge amount at once is occupying the machine for less time than if they did multiple shorter visits.
Most households already have glass to be recycled, jars etc. Adding additional bottles isn't as inconvenient as managing a bag of cans with this new inconvenient system. At least for me.
Or alternatively I could buy in to this system and not bother with bringing my bottles to the bottle bank any more. Meaning minimal increase in inconvenience.
I'm already bringing glass bottles to the bottle bank. With wine and spirits, jam and various other things it's glass bottles/jars only. So I can't cut glass bottles out of my routine.
I can cut cans out of my routine no problem. Lots of beer comes in glass bottles at the same unit price as cans. So that's what i'll do. Anyone who doesn't offer their product in glass bottles loses my business, simple.
I just read from the re-turn website that plastic bottles containing dairy products can't be put into these machines. This accounts for the vast majority of plastic bottles most households buy does it not?
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