Deposit return scheme (recycling)

Thats really hard to say, as some work for some things and others don't at all, or else just break as soon as it has my confidence.

-for getting rid of small tropicanna bottles or those incredibly small pesky fruit shoots = LIDL is best (thats if its not out of service)

-for plastic bottles of most sizes (500ml and up) = ALDI is best.

-for cans i've been having mixed results, but usually centra works best for me. Aldi is okay with cans, tesco cans only seem to sometimes work, but mainly seems to be accepting the tall 330ml cans much more than the small fat normal 330ml cans which is weird.

-for nothing the best machines = dealz, as they're always not working lol. i've never once made a redeem in any dealz, besides trying 5 different stores.

supervalu and dunnes seems really hit or miss for me, but i don't put this down to the branches, i put it down to the stores themselves as i've only been to like 2 of these and don't frequent them much. Although in a months time i am considering using rvms in both of these stores much more.

Lidl and supervalu seem to be using what i can only describe as a long bikechain conveyor mechanism, and these are really strong physically but quite often tend to jam up alot. More often than not there are a pile up of bottles somewhere in the machine either due to people getting over excited and putting stuff in fast one after the other without waiting for the screen to confirm its ready for the next bottle to be inserted, or else the conveyor belt on these moves much too fast causing the items to pile up faster than they can go down the chute. There's also many cases of the machine attempting to read one thing while attempting to shape recognise another item behind it, which also results in an error and shuts the machine down makes the machine display that dreaded red hexagon shape thingy or red hand saying stop or out of service.

i went down to tesco in dundrum a couple weeks back and noticed their machine has a long convyor belt like lidl/supervalu but the inside of theirs functions differently and has a room behind it. was a weird experience. their machine seems to take EVERYTHING, but crushes nothing and says "out of service" after putting 10+ items in and printing the voucher. i think it requires manual inspection or some sort of verification to make sure everything is in working order after large deposits are made, but this also could be to prevent fraud just incase someone tried that toilet paper trick (which i still believe is a prank or unproven myth) or the sticker thing. If im speculating further my guess would be that a man goes into the back room of the rvm and visually gives a quick inspection. Somehow after claiming the cash from customer service, the machine was back in working order despite no one coming out to the front to fix it. Perhaps its all done from the back? The squshing sound the machines make is satisfying, but didnt get that same satisfaction from the tesco machine in dundrum despite it accepting everything lol. i like to think of the squishing sound as like a kind of burping after the machine eats the food aka recycleables. and then as a way of saying thanks for the meal it pays you at the end with the deposit.

Is it a barcode that's on the receipt? Would taking a photograph and using it on the scanner in the shop work to preserve the receipt?

I think anyone proposing to save up the refunds might be better off cashing them as they get them and putting the money in a piggy bank.

At least until the fading issue is sorted.

Thank you for your service.

That's interesting. Do you have the barcode number for that drink by any chance? The data source for my checker is the very same as Re-Turn's (unless they've changed something) - so I'd be curious to look into why that happened

oops! I re-checked it there and it came up ok on both checkers. Must not have copied and pasted it correctly. I've edited my earlier post accordingly.

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Sorry for the false alarm, and thanks for your tool, easier to get to than the Re-turn one.

Went to a restaurant yesterday and we got charged the deposit return for the cans that they served us as drink. None of the cans had the logo so even if we took the cans with us, we will not have get the deposit back. Bit of a rip off, the restaurant should not charged the deposit if the cans cannot been returned

But look at what you're suggesting - intended as genuine and helpful I know - but this is just ridiculous from start to finish..

• Bring back your cans and bottles and fiddle with the machines until they take them (if they do)
• Go squinting at barcodes and checking websites to do the work of logging new SKUs for them
• Stand around at Customer Service desks arguing about 15c or a few Euro at most which the store won't care about (not their scheme and they've already been paid) and the poor guy/girl listening to it certainly won't care

All so we can faff about with an idiotic time-wasting and inconvenient scheme/stealth tax because the EU have decided we must. Meanwhile developing countries and bigger player globally do what they want.

It's a scam.

no offense but in my opinion it was'nt helpful. i mean it was decent and genuine don't get me wrong, but it does'nt really help his situation and feels like more of an opinion or an afterthought rather than advice. it's good that you mentioned checking the barcode as a suggestion which can be somewhat helpful next time. if it happened me i would pay everything but the 15cent deposit. if i did'nt have the exact amount -15c, then i'd argue the 15 cent or atleast question it, or bring the can home and the receipt and report it to return (i doubt this last part would actually help though, seems more like a placebo blanket as return still has yet of today 3 weeks now not gotton back to me lol).

it's also possible the can's he speaks of, have no barcode. Some restaurants use multi-pack cans.

There was also another lad here a few days ago posted about being cheated out of a deposit on non-returnable cans or bottles from a multipack, but because he didnt have a receipt, or the origenal packacging or something, he could'nt do anything about it iirc.

Over the weekend I looked at the online shopping sites of the leading Irish stores - with a view to estimating the % of items being sold now with the deposit.

I had previously stated that the percentage of items being sold now with deposit is above 80%, and the research affirms that.

As you read the below, no doubt you might wonder how I still think that when say Aldi is under 50% - but bear in mind I am looking at items available to order online, not volume going through the till.

So take Coca Cola, which is the leading soft drink. 100% of Core original and Coke Zero in Dunnes, Tesco and Supervalue were being charged deposit (cans, bottles, multipacks, larger bottles). Same goes for Fanta, Sprite and 7up, with Pepsi 100% in Dunnes and Tesco. On the other hand, items where old stock persists were what you would expect were slower moving items - Lucozade Zero pink, some of Aldis own brand drinks, etc.

Its also worth bearing in mind that the 4 shops I feature account for 79% of grocery shopping in Ireland according to Kantar (Feb 2024).

Here are my findings. Apologies for the image format, easier to paste as that than a table.

i've been to lidl several times in the past few weeks and can confirm the only barcodes brandishing return logo's i ever see, are monster energy drinks, some of the "usual suspects" you've mentioned (coke, fanta etc) and if i'm not mistaking, sometimes their bottled water. Everything else there appears to have no return logo.

Also there's a flaw in depending on online inventory, as some stores may not even have what they show online, or may have it different. including items with/without a deposit vice versa. Some stores may list something online as having to pay a deposit, but when you actually get there its possible you may find an item that does'nt have a deposit (eg old stock). The online thing i think is just to give an example of what "could be" and can't be a gaurentee. Its a point of refference for online shoppers to and an idea of what to expect.

All the large flavored ballygowens i've come across in aldi still have no return logo (€1.55 or 1.50 iirc) and no deposit.

ALdi's own brand items i can't seem to find any return logo's on at all, but its possible i did'nt look hard enough.

Tesco did the reverse of this, they advertised non-logo sparkling water stock a few weeks back for 30 cent (the dump price) some places had it, sadly other places and all my nearest tescos only had the 95 cent price including the deposit.

A Handful of people were essentially getting sparkling water for 5 cent because of it! (using 25cent deposit return barcodes on the 30 cent bottles = 5 cent after returning the bottle to an rvm)

"All so we can faff about with an idiotic time-wasting and inconvenient scheme/stealth tax because the EU Ossian Smyth and the Greens have decided we must."

Have you enquired with the Revenue Commissioners as to the appropriate tax treatment for Re-turn vouchers?

Yes, as they are "deposits" they are entirely untaxable. I Was told they would have to be a capital gain from source that pays people money, gives a financial gain, or something one "earns" money from. There's nothing to tax here as deposits are only a person's money back and does'nt create any new wealth in of itself. Upon further questioning i was however told if i were to bring cans over a certain amount to a scrapyard and got a chunk of money all in one go from a scrap merchant, that would be taxable and needs to be declared.

tl;dr deposits being returned are not considered as a form "income".

also adding to the list: scientists, experimenters/testers, high volume returners, and adventurer's (people who go explore new locations on foot just to use the machines and discover locations, although i can see this being enthusiastic to some degree)

Also this be my 1000 post! :D