Deposit return scheme (recycling)

That's just being a conventional manual return point surely?

I haven't gone to actually check which they do (manual or RVM), but the Arranmore Co-op is registered as a re-turn point now rather than the shop and all the small cafes/coffee vans/etc having to do it. That island, however, has wheelie bins, bin trucks, and conventional bottle banks already; its basically just like a small village that happens to have a kilometre of sea between it and the next.

Whats with the plastic wrappers on the bottles nowadays?

Barely stuck onto the bottles that when you bring them to the machine half of them have come off the bottles.

Makes me wonder if it’s deliberate.

This is a very naive and short sighted standpoint.

It's the truth though

Nice alternate view of reality you have there. Presume you don't have proof for this?

The point of this scheme is to bring our recycling rate of cans and bottles up from ~60% to 90%+ nothing more, nothing less. Recycling more helps protect the environment and makes the planet livable into the future. This isn't an opinion, this is fact, backed up by science and a general understanding of how the planet work

Anybody who thinks differently are the delusional ones. Anybody who thinks our govt have an ulterior motive on this scheme is giving our govt too much brain credit in my opinion

This schemes main aim is to more accurately measure the delta between what is sold verus what is collected, getting up to a 90 percent figure isn't going to happen and was never going to happen, given the flaws with the scheme pointed out months ago.

I don't really think the government themselves had a secondary motive but there is no doubt this scheme is a net negative on "The environment" and that a number of people and companies will get richer as a direct and indirect result of it, with very vague actual positive outcomes. Have you noticed the increases in prices almost across the board for popular drinks over the past few weeks? Are the manufacturers of the machines themselves not going to be significantly enriched by the scheme? The directors/staff and God knows who else.

The statement you use there " Recycling more helps protect the environment and makes the planet livable into the future" is complete and utter garbage. You should be able to see the issue with it as far as the bigger picture goes. But again, its a nice sound bite, very fluffy and without any context - which is exactly how this scheme was planned and indeed implemented.

Just because you say something is "fact, backed up by science" doesn't necessarily make it true.

Example, in Germany they sell significantly more PET materials now than they did a number of years ago. Their collection rates (not necessarily recycle rates) are up on 90 percent (I think) - is this a net good thing for the protection of the environment? Or would the ideal scenario be to looking to reduce and reuse before going down the recycle route? Recycling, in itself, is not a process that comes without it's byproducts.

A guy rang up Liveline a few weeks ago. Yes, I know, Crank-Or-Bore-Line, but bear with me. He had put a GPS tracker in one of his recycling bags, which got picked up and he tracked it from his home straight to the Poolbeg Incinerator.

They had a representative from RePak I believe it was, who came on and instead of defending that fact, he talked about the dangers of putting an electronic device into the incinerator!

The systems to recycle plastic are very different to recycling aluminium. Across Ireland, some recycling plants can do both, but many do one or the other. Is the ReTurn system set up sufficiently that the stuff goes to the right plant with the right equipment?

I am tempted to do a similar experiment with the ReTurn RVMs, to be honest.

No system is idiot proof. Especially a system that has not been tested on idiots.

Well I watched the machine at my local Aldi being emptied and the bottles were not crushed or shredded.

Heavier than you. Or a generalisation about all those recycling at the machines

I wouldn't be blowing into any of mine, as they're generally ones that have been dumped by others on the streets :)

Here are some observations since the scheme was introduced:

- Street littering has not decreased at all. Every day when walking home from work, I easily come across 5 to 10 cans and bottles left on the streets. One or two of these might be alcoholic drinks, but most are just water or fizzy/energy drinks put neatly down at the side of a footpath or on a window sill. Red bull cans are everywhere by the way, but oddly enough they are usually dumped on the road and generally flattened by cars and difficult therefore to re-turn. Anyway, the bottom line here is that street littering in general is still an issue in this country.

- I've also noticed that there is a staggering amount of recyclable containers that get dumped in shopping centre bins and street bins. Just glance into any bins that you pass. This is the KEY issue I believe. If you think about it, it makes sense since drinks are probably one of the most common purchases when people are out and about. And it raises the question, why do councils not have any recycling bins for the general public to use in towns and city centres. Instead, they are all for general rubbish only. If there were RVMs in public areas, it might make a bit of a difference, but a lot of folk still aren't going to bother to go out of their way to get a coupon for just 15c. The fundamental issue really is that the councils have not and still do not encourage recycling on the streets of towns and cities.

- On an aside, the M&S RVM type seems to be the worst designed type, with very narrow conveyor belts that struggle to grip and move the recyclables to the crusher at the back. It also requires frequent user interaction, with users even required to press a start button to begin!

That would be difficult to implement with a paper based voucher. You just get the balance in change.

Effectively you cash the voucher and pay for your milk in cash.

Can you cash the vouchers? I thought shops only let them be used as credit against a purchase?

Why you can't simply get it onto your card or apple pay is beyond me.

A recycling scheme that actually prints out on paper!

Is it done that way anywhere else? How would it work? Would much prefer it over a receipt I must spend in the shop I took the cans back to - currently have about 10 receipts for 20 euro or so, as i keep forgetting to pick them when I'm visiting the shop I returned them to (usually drop them off on the way to work as 'usually' the machine is more likely working and no queues)

Well since the bin collection went private I noticed less and less public bins on the streets in Dublin - seems at least for Dublin they do no want anything to do with rubbish

And the bins that still exist are stuffed to the brim with household rubbish

That's because many are charged per collection, bins only go out when full.

it’s the biggest load of sh1te that was ever thought of. A rush of sh1t to the brain and the rest of us have to suffer a half baked plan. Same happened my wife. She brought cans with her to Aldi. Machine out of order and she had to bring the fcukin cans around shopping and home again.

It should all be scrapped again and forget the whole fcukin thing