Deposit return scheme (recycling)

on average the shop i work collects about €55 euro a day on deposit return charges, and from our machine gives back on average probably about 90 cent.

our machine is fairly shite to be fair, but still.

I get your point about closing time.

Maybe shops should be allowed to close the machines ahead of actual closing time say 15 to 30 minutes.

Well it's kind of stating the obvious but yes the machines should work.

An electronic refund to accounts would be a useful option too.

Well with all due respect its part of your job. The legislation places obligations on retailers to take back in scope cans/bottles. It doesn't provide for retailers doing this at their leisure.

In any case it wasnt near closing time in either scenario.

Way back on the thead someone posted that the vouchers are not ideal for carrying around like cash. Because the print quality is not high, and they might not scan if they got faded. I did an experiment with damaged containers, and got the same result as you. Once the barcode is not distorted, it will scan.

Which wouldn't be a problem if the machines were working properly and refunding to a bank account. Hell you could go mad altogether and leave RVMs online for an hour after closing if they were all the same RVM, outside so not blocking up shop entrances and fully trialled to a high standard before this shyite started.

Yes, in an ideal world where everything works,but as we know from reports here we have a bit to go.

Interesting that Lidl who actually ran trials and have experience of DRS in other countries seem to be having so many problems.

It might vary by what shop you get the voucher in. I had some faded ones from Lidl after being in my phone case for a few weeks and they scanned fine

Success! Well almost 33 own brand Lidl tonic water returned to a machine outside Lidl. First ten total pain two went through first time 6 second time and 2 totally rejected. So I thought I'd experiment. Just decided that bottom end first with barcode at about 2 o'clock would be a good start. The next 23 went through perfectly along with the 2 that got rejected. Will try the same in a couple of weeks time and see if thats solved it for me.

There are no barcodes on the cans, they were produced before the system even came into place.

I tried one of them in the RVM and all it kept saying was "No barcode detected" and back out it came after 4 tries.

This is exactly what it was, MUP being charged on them to clear off the old stock they have before June. The price on display has the "€1.80 deposit" section on it.

Some of the Lidl beers have the sign up that says something like "There is a deposit charged on these even though there are no barcodes however they are in the DRS, return them to Lidl for a full refund." This was and is still not on the MUP old stock they're clearing.

I'll be sending a compliant when I'm home if I still have some cans and the box.

First ever issue with the system and as said earlier it's the principle of it. I've actively participated and encouraged others too and still not good enough.

There was a concession that allowed stock with certain barcodes but no logo to be included.

They are incorrectly implying this permits them to charge deposits on cans with no barcode which could never be accepted in an RVM.

It's wrong and they shouldn't be doing it.

Id love to know, numbers sold per day I. The same period and more importantly number actually recycled out of those collected.

That press release 14 May with those dodgy numbers has the paragraph below. The number is going to be fluid. A can bought in March could turn up in a machine in September.

Return rates

The Irish Scheme began on 1 February 2024. Retailers are still phasing out non-logo and non-deposit drinks containers on shelves until the end of the transition period, 31 May 2024. Therefore, Ireland will not have a full year of the scheme in action until 1 June 2025 to assess more accurate return metrics.

The assumption of an equal number of containers sold daily throughout the year, 5 million per day, doesn’t align with the actual sales pattern of drink containers. Peak periods, such as Christmas and the summer months, significantly impact sales. Additionally, this method fails to consider the volume of non-deposit stock sold by retailers during the transition period until 31 May.