Good luck with that.
• 3,200 active collection points (Over 2,600 with Reverse Vending Machines and 600 with manual collection) • 9,886 registered products • 1,2 billion collected containers through RVMs (1 227 178 901)
The Checkout people are pleased with themselves on how they are operating the scheme. It has seen the disappearance of 24 packs, but overall the average price increases for the categories are very far below the previous years when there was high inflation. They have figures showing a 88% return rate, which is good.
https://www.checkout.ie/retail/the-deposit-return-scheme-has-it-been-worth-it-218210
"On the face of it, it looks as though DRS may have resulted in above inflation price rises to the shopper, but this needs to be viewed with other factors in mind. The growing burden on retailers, particularly in the convenience sector, is inevitably creating an upward pressure on pricing overall. Their role in communicating and executing the scheme so successfully should be applauded, as should the other main parties - the manufacturers and shoppers.
Together, in the space of just 12 months, they have already hit an 88% return rate, versus the EU target of 90% by 2029."
Didnt you already post this to the thread?
Seems to be a lot of waffle about 'other factors' covering up actual price increases.
The disappearance of cheaper product lines for example.
It doesnt just look like it did. It actually did.
While overall soft drink value sales in the year-to-date 2025 have seen low growth of 1.6%, this is accounted for by unit sales declining (by 4.9%) and average prices increasing (by 6.8%).
No source is provided for the below figures to establish their accuracy... and anyhow havent you previously argued that it is impossible to declare a return rate because stock is constantly being sold and returned?
Since the launch of DRS, the return rate for containers has risen from an initial 45% in the first few months, to 73% in August 2024 and more recently achieving 88%.
I did not post it before.
Fair enough, I see it wasn't you but it was posted to the thread before:
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123515112/#Comment_123515112
Accessibility to be improved under new EU law.
Why Deposit Return Scheme must now meet accessibility standards https://share.google/BfB9nGvZCxFPDh0in
Tidy towns collection point in Carrick on Shannon Co. Leitrim.
The irony being the big manky orange bin covered in shítty stickers and chains put in by people who want to make the town look tidy
Carrick is a lovely place on the banks of the River Shannon.
The tidy towns volunteers know what's best to keep it looking well.
If you're about tomorrow morning you are welcome to join them in the weekly litter pick.
Carrick on Shannon Tidy Towns https://share.google/hqdB3bEZ3z6yVzZKe
My brown bin is now home to cans and bottles in a plastic bag, my brown bin contents are now in the black bin, and some of the black bin contents are mixed in with green bin.
It's crazy that the greens broke a great recycling system.
I haven’t read all this thread, but I work for Tesco and I’ve changed/cleaned and dealt with the machines, its reps and the smart and dumb people that use them. I cAn answer some of the questions people have if needs be. Perhaps someone has already done it.
That sounds like you are the issue.
Blaming the greens is really silly as it was not them
Thanks for the offer.
In your opinion what is the most common problem people complain about ?
Do you and your colleagues do the extra work associated with Re-Turn for free or have Tesco provided extra staff / more paid work hours?
What a weird question. They are paid to work and never do it for free. I can't imagine there is enough extra in the duties to need any further staff
The machines in my local Tesco are now able to take donations. I gave 90 cents yesterday. I think this will be a good money spinner for the charities.
The widgets from Guinness cans often jam up the mechanism, and we have to get into it and remove the plastic and people seem to hold me responsible for it.
People also don’t take care of their DRS receipts and often hand in wet/damaged/faded ones and when we try to explain if we can’t scan or key it in we can’t give to money and people get very aggressive over that.
And also, Tesco machines allow you to donate your money instead so people just don’t read what they’re doing and they donate their return money and they also hold us responsible for it despite they having to confirm it twice that they wish to donate the return amount.
It’s just another thing that came in where we have extra duties to do on the same shift times with the slowly expanding amount of duties. No extra pay or anything like that.
So you have to work harder and under more pressure for the same pay. Some clowns on this thread are trying to say this isnt happening for some reason.
Well, it’s not hard to do any of each individual task. But it’s hard to do so many simple tasks, in the time we’re expected to do it; if you know what I mean. No work in any Tesco anywhere is ‘hard’.
If this also helps, I’m in work right now and I just had an interaction with a man trying to insert cans that said “sabor guaraná” or something very very similar and he threw a wobbly over not getting money for them. I tried to explain that I believe they were Spanish or Portuguese cans and he was having none of it.
The smell as you walk into the larger supermarkets is foul. Dunnes, Tesco etc have the machines near the entrance. The local SuperValu has the machines in the middle of the shop and the smell in store is repulsive. Super idea alright.
I think we're in agreement. Working harder i.e. faster to get more work done in the same time for no extra pay.
We had someone on here trying to argue that a manual return doesn't take up any time for shop staff.
Interesting about the widgets. I suppose that when the machines were designed they hadn't heard about Guinness.
Do some go through or do they all gum up the works ?
As for dealing with the public, it's never easy.
I expect that over time they'll learn to mind the receipts and be careful with which button they are pressing.
And also to be nicer to shop staff.
I suppose you don't need me to tell you that Tesco have a "slightly difficult" relationship with trade unions.
If extra tasks are added then either more time or more bodies are required.
Unions are used to negotiating such issues and have the resources to carry out time and motion studies.
Tesco are bringing in more workers. And contrary to what was posted above, the 2 Tescos that I shop in have their machines inside. There is no smell, any time I am there.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0707/1522120-tesco-jobs-ireland/
Did you read the article?
Tesco Ireland has announced plans to create 400 new jobs across the country as part of a €40m investment which will see the retailer open ten new stores nationwide over the next 12 months.
Absolutely nothing in the article to point to it relating to higher staffing levels in existing stores. They are not bringing in extra workers.
So completely irrelevent to the point being discussed which is extra work for existing staff due to Return scheme.
Tesco's are full of staff, it's the 2 or 3 running around lidl & aldi that'd really notice it
Sorry if this has come up before, I don't want to read through 149 pages and the boards search function is useless for searching individual threads (I think - correct me if not).
I've been in a couple of cafes lately where if you order a soft drink you have to pay the deposit. Are they supposed to offer to knock it off the bill if you return the container there and then? I'd imagine hardly anyone takes it with them. I know I should have asked at the time, but I didn't want to make a fuss and embarrass the teenagers. 🤣
Places that sell things can be exempt from accepting the returns, Mc Donald’s advertise it pretty well in their locations inside. I can’t remember the exact profit, but I think it’s something like a machine costs €28,000 and the return from it is something similar to 7c per 100 items. We ran the numbers in our store and it was 3 years before our individual store begins to profit from it. So it’s not viable for everywhere to have one.
