The new recycling system

There is a false narrative being peddled by our governance and the handsomely paid people in the newly formed Quango, that this scheme is mandatory and being forced upon us by the EU. Ergo we have no choice.

There is an opt out of the scheme entirely if we achieve a 78% collection rate on PET plastic bottles by 2026. But of course no one can tell us what our collection rate is now. So we could actually be there already, it doesn't matter a jot if that plastic ends up exported, landfilled or burned, that is going to continue to happen regardless. We don't have facility at the moment to recycle at that scale. No where near it. It would be the equivalent of buying half dozen cattle and bringing them home to your 2nd floor apartment.

Again this scheme has absolutely nothing to do with recycling, it's coming in under the single use plastic directive. It's a collection scheme. Cans are not plastic, they were included in the scheme because they are as trash goes high value items.

Why is that important? because including cans means a rather large transfer of wealth from the private collection companies to Re-Turn.

The end result in that is all our collection bills go up.

Why else is it important, human behaviours.

If only plastic was included in the scheme, the reality is because it is a complete pain in the hole people may change their ways and reduce their plastic use because their is some alternatives, but the fact they included cans as well, now it becomes far more difficult more difficult to source alternatives and why would you bother if you have to haul your arsé to the machine anyway?

Plus sure this scheme is super good for environment so why would I reduce my use when I'm being patted on the head for "recycling".

have you seen a plastic bag in a ditch or on a hedge recenlty?

I remember going to Killarney on a windy summer's evening with some american friends. They commented on the amount of litter on the approach roads. Mostly these were the lightweight plastic bags that stuck to branches.

It as an ugly sight and a simply small charge (now 22c) that got rid of the problem overnight.

Go to a beach on a summer's day and look at the hundreds of cans and bottles left behind by a cohort of people who simply don't give a damn. - My guess is this summer will see substantially cleaner beaches, parks and open spaces

Would humbly suggest a €10/€15 backpack. Will get 5/10 years out of it, easier to carry stuff, not giving free advertising to a shop, won't end up with a collection of plastic bags etc.

I cant ever find a plastic bag in a shop when i need one that only 22c.

Have one, but sometimes don’t bring it to work with me if I’m not planning on going to shop. Or sometimes can’t fit everything in.

Got my first 15c today 🙄😂 bottle of Arizona tea no logo on bottle and the RVM took it no issues .. checked shopping this morning and another couple of items no logo barcode is on list .. so seems to be a large number of non logo items in circulation..

edit

I wasn’t charged the extra 15c when buying it same price as always..

I wonder is the price per litre on their site calculated and that's why they've done it that way? The extra 15c would knock the calculated value.

So what happens here a 4 pack , the individual bottles don’t have a barcode

Impossible - there was a public consultation on it!

But they haven't replaced anything. More accurate to say they added 1800 locations to the existing 1.9m