Deposit return scheme (recycling) - Part 2

And it was quoted in the email from Repak that waste collectors would suffer a loss of valuable collectables.

I don't know if he is fobbing them off.

I think they might persist a little longer especially in light of their recent pr campaign in the Indo.

I have no idea where the negotiations are at but I would have expected some public statement if they had broken down.

If they have I expect we will hear soon enough.

Now that you mention it I suppose they didn't really try too hard to promote the concept.

Once you get used to it the idea makes sense.

There used to be a lot of bottles caps and pull seals littered.

it was news to me at any rate, a couple of bleeding gums (joke) too late. Without it being explained ahead of time it just came across as an annoyance. Im sure its a plus but bottlecap litter never stuck me as high on the list of problems to solve

mine has gone up by €20.

Bord na mona email sent on 12th July regarding charges going up from 1st July - no mention of previous per kilo charges so hard to figure % increase:

"From 1st of July, your Pay by Weight service charge will not change. Instead, the cost per kilo of waste will increase by the following amounts: General Waste Bin €0.05 per kilo, Recycling bin €0.03 per kilo, Organic bin €0.03 per kilo (if applicable), Glass bin €0.02 per kilo (if applicable).

2024 Service Charges

As with other waste companies we find ourselves dealing with significant cost increases. Over the past couple of years, the cost of general waste disposal has seen substantial increases, and this trend has continued this year. We wish to assure you that we fully understand the implications of a price increase, and through our internal cost-saving measures, we have limited this to the least possible amount for our loyal customers."

A good yank and the cap comes off leaving the ring around the neck of the bottle.Spillage might be a problem for some.

If you want to make sure the caps end up in the recycling system it seems like keeping them attached to the bottles is a good idea.

What alternative are you proposing ?

The caps aren't a big problem, you can just rip them off handy and screw back on when done. That's what I do with milk cartons anyways.

FG did not sell them off. LA were losing substantial money on rubbish collection between staff costs, inflexible work practices and being charge waivers. Outside Dublin eubish collection was git rid of by tge LA in the mid naughties.

In Dublin LA kept it on until about 2012 it was losing 10 million at the time

You can make all the excuses you want. You still end up paying more and it will be more and more to come.

If you're happy with that, so be it. But we should never have privatised our waste management and the sooner we take it back into public ownership, the better.

I don't mind the caps at least I don't lose them now. I found pushing the cap back till you hear a click holds them in place and aren't much of nuisance then. The biggest nuisance is the carrying empty bottles around with you till you either get home or if you buy another drink. I am going to the airport tomorrow so more than likely will buy a bottle of soft drink in the departures will be charged the tax, I think departures in the airport should exempt for this charge.

Brought a black bag full of cans and bottles to Tesco's most were taken had a few rejections but a wipe of the barcode to make sure no liquid was on it and most of them were accepted. Had 3 cans that would not be accepted by the machine and was about throw them in the bin when I said I would try the machine next to it and cans were accepted first time, so one machine would not accept them even though it accepted similar cans but the machine next to it took them no problem. Makes no sense.

Shopping in Aldi in Belgard this morning and there was a lad in Panda Waste uniform with 3 back bags full of cans/bottles feeding the machine. The other one was broken and there was a queue of annoyed looking people waiting behind him.

Worth noting for anyone travelling to France this summer that a lot of the premium cans from Belgium/Germany in the hypermarket in Cherbourg had the returns logo on them, so you can subsidise the already much cheaper beer you bring home by a further 15c a tin thanks to Return!

Not an uncommon sight in Dublin city centre now to see individuals emptying out bins searching for cans and bottles and not being too bothered about putting the rubbish back in. Similar individuals harassing passers-by for their cans/bottles if they're carrying some.

Also on my travels I've seen people rummaging through the large bins outside apartment buildings, but at least they weren't leaving too much of a mess.

The 'circular economy' in action. Can't get much more circular than that!🤣😂

That's what we used to do with Lucozade bottles when I was a kid. The shop used to put them out the back, we used to bring them back in the front 😂.

At Tesco yesterday emptying a bunch of cans, got the voucher at the end for just under €6.

Did my grocery shopping and went to the self service checkout and used the voucher for part of the total as I always do. This time the machine showed an error when I scanned the receipt, the voucher wasn't recognised. Tried again and same problem. Asked staff about it and she shrugged saying it happens sometimes with the faulty printing from the deposit return machines and there's nothing they can do about it.

Grand so.

A good yank and the cap comes off...

I kept the receipt but the staff member said I'd have to contact the company who maintain the machines and they don't deal with issues from them.

I would have asked for a manager. This is someone passing the buck for sure.

I was trying to use the Marks & Spencer machine at Dundrum SC a few days ago. A machine that’s a bit different looking to most others and so finicky it rejected most of my bottle on basis they were wrong shape and had some liquid remaining. The conveyor belt is flat with ridges, bottles often turn across them rather than centre in snuggly. This was after “blowing up” the bottles to ensure they should be in an acceptable shape.

Brought them to Aldi in Nutgrove today to find shop is shut for refurbishment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m disabled and it’s an effort to get out and my feet are very reluctant to take any weight past two days.

Why ?

Totally agree with this. It's another case of the majority of producers who make millions in profits annually not want to deal with a problem unless absolutely forced too…this type of thing made sense and was doable for the past decade.

It's a prime example of why the DRS is an absolute god send for producers also. They've managed to 'off shore' all of the cost and risk associated with the three Rs to the consumer while at the same time using the scheme as a smoke screen to increase the base cost of their products. They won't be under ANY pressure to change their packaging or distribution method or suffer any significant negative consequences from producing significant plastic waste.

Imagine at least one of the receipts will be illegible or the machine will run out of paper.

not sure about individual receipts but I would defo batch it up to some extent in case the machine barfs half way through.