First question indeed.
It seems as long as tenuous claims can be made about less litter being thrown round the streets / countryside then Re-Turn is a success. Nevermind the actual recycling. Bizarre really.
Through the Deposit Return Scheme, aluminium cans can be recycled infinitely while PET plastic bottles can be recycled multiple times, reducing the need for the use of virgin materials.
They could be and were without this scam.
RTE should really just stop copying and pasting Re-Chit-Ching press releases.
Send a reporter down and ask a few questions.
First one.
How many of the 900m items have actually been successfully recycled?
It's an utterly meaningless figure. As if these wouldn't have been chucked into the green bin anyway. 🙄
Of course the majority of people are going to go through the hassle of dumping their bottles and cans. They want their money back that's being held to ransom by Re-turn. But it's not as if all of these items were going to be just chucked around the streets before return came along and saved us all.
900m items returned in first 11 and a half months.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0115/1490950-900-million-plastic-bottles-and-cans-now-returned/ Its a weird stat to release, i.e. 900m is not a nice round 1bn returns, and 11.5 months is a 1 year anniversary. Maybe they have given up any hope of a magical 1bn in one year.
At least we now know that the gross return rate is around 45-50% (annual sales are 1.8bn-2bn depending on what you read).
And yes, I know, there was a phasing in period, etc, etc. We do not know the actual return rate until Re-turn tell us, so I am not saying this is the currentgross return, I am just interpreting the facts as they were put out there. Re-turn would prefer you don't analyse or interpret any number, its just better that way. Simply read any big number as really great news - I heard somewhere that there is something like 8 zeros and 2 commas in 900m, its amazing isn't it?
That isn't in any way normal
What types of bottles, and indeed where are you getting said bottles from?
His mother could look at her statement or ring her bank and ask what her IBAN number is.
All of this is just bloody nonsense. 🙄
I never mentioned your mother. Your the one who keeps bringing her up for some reason.
Given your refusal to answer my simple question I can conclude that you have ready access to your financial details as do the vast majority of the country. Would that be fair?
Your mother would be an outlier, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't be catered for. No one is suggesting otherwise.
...
Some people dont have credit cards therefore credit card payments should not be allowed in shops!
This is the equivalent of the strawman you are trying to reduce things to.
Or you know, as is done in countries like Denmark, refund by app should be a supported option for those who want it.
such a shite scheme almost half the bottles not accepted by the machines a complete disgrace of a scam
Would you ever stop the nonsense about people who wouldn't use refunds to bank accounts. Is your mother on Boards? Should we not have Boards if she doesn't use it? As already suggested IBAN refund should be available for those that want to use it.
I was giving the example of my mother earlier, she doesn't know what an IBAN is, does all her banking over the counter, and doesn't own a phone capable of handling a bank app. She is not unique.
She heads down to the shops with her six or seven plastic bottles weekly to get her money back though.
Since when is what people want a priority?
People don't want credit. They want the money that's being fleeced off of them by Re-turn back.
I didn't ask about your mother or WhatsApp.
I asked.
Do you use a banking app, banking online, do you have a bank statement?
My mother doesn't have a phone capable of WhatsApp.
The reality is we are the hamsters.
To get hamsters to what you want to do, you place a nut at the end of the maze, but you put barriers up because you want the hamster to do what you want.
Putting reclaimed deposit credit on an app is hardly innovation. It's 2025.
It wasn't done because it doesn't benefit those who benefit from this scam.
We will continue to do what we are told in order to get the nut which unlike a hamster we already paid for. At least the hamster is gaining something from his work.
It is genius really.
To be fair they are not hiding the fact that is what are doing.
It is unashamedly heralded on the Re-Chit-Ching website.
Potential to increase consumer footfall as consumers return their empty beverage containers to get their deposit fee refund.
I wonder if Re-turn have system capability to pay by IBAN.
They don't have an app, the height of their technical capability seems to be dropping pins on a Google map, and they can't even support a way to use a voucher from one store in another branch, etc. On top of that, the extent of their ingenuity would seem to be container holders around public bins or paying students to harvest containers at festivals for childers charidees.
I strongly suspect their financial systems are only capable of a 1:1 closed link from an RVM to a store, i.e. a fairly limited capability.
The innovation might need to come from the retailers, i.e. scan your receipt and it becomes credit on your Dunnes / Tesco app that you can use next time you pay. At least retailers they have some capability, a willingness to innovate and an installed base of users to begin with.
When you start a new job you have to give payroll your IBAN so they can pay you.
You'll sure as shit find out what it is then.
This is it. ....
Nothing in it for the large stores that are charged with running the nuts and bolts of the scheme.
The scheme for them is about driving footfall away from the smaller retailers to them.
If it wasn't they could have produced a universal receipt to be used in any retailer.
IBAN's for the majority of people are accessible.
It would take you 2 minutes to show them how to access their IBAN but if they couldn't or didn't want to the paper receipts could remain with the option of a digital payout for those who do know how to use online/mobile banking.
If you asked me what my IBAN was I couldn't tell you, but I could give it to you in seconds.
Asked my parents yesterday what their IBAN was and they looked at me blankly, as did my son today.
IBANs aren't accessible.
Huh?
I reckon all Irish people wouldn't know their IBAN off by heart.
But it's 2025 you don't have to.
Login to your banking App, go online or look a statement it will be there.
And again.
DRS is not about recycling. The only thing which is recycled is aluminium but that was being recycled even without DRS. Plastic waste is only collected. We do not know how much of it is actually recycled if any. Simply because plastic bottles recycling is not profitable therefore most of it end up on landfill or incinerator.
Call it recovery because that is what it is. It is not recycling.
Anyone else notice sometimes when you put in crushed cans it takes the cans alright but doesn’t give you anything for it? This has happened several times?
No you came up with that idea. Along with people being expected to memorise their IBANs for some reason.
Strawman nonsense. Absolute nonsense as demonstrated by the experience in other EU countries.
Why don't we copy one of our EU peer countries, you know the ones we were told we were copying a successful scheme from?
Weren't we told it was a great idea because it was working in places like Denmark?
Remember those or has that been memory holed by you?
In Denmark, you can even download an app that'll deliver the deposit straight back into your bank account.
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/1122/1460599-ireland-deposit-return-scheme-innovations/
Not sure why the sarcasm, I've been against this scheme from the start.
