In 2024, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) was launched in Ireland, requiring consumers to pay a deposit on any bottles or cans purchased, with this to be refunded when the container was recycled at specific return sites.<\/p>\n
According to the Re-turn website, more than 3.2 billion cans and bottles have been returned so far. It says litter has been cut by 55 per cent since the scheme\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n
How does the scheme work?<\/p>\n
Consumers pay a refundable deposit when purchasing an eligible drink in a plastic bottle or aluminium or steel can displaying the Re-turn logo.<\/p>\n
The deposits are charged at 15 cent for containers from 150ml to 500ml and 25 cent for containers of more than 500ml and up to 3 litres.<\/p>\n
Empty and undamaged containers can be returned through a reverse vending machine or manual return point. The deposit is then refunded, normally through a voucher redeemable at the relevant retailer, a spokesman for Re-turn said.<\/p>\n
How is the scheme funded?<\/p>\n
Re-turn is a not-for-profit organisation. The DRS is an extended producer-responsibility scheme funded through producer fees, unredeemed deposits and income from the sale of recyclable materials.<\/p>\n
It operates independently under ministerial approval and the scheme is not Government-funded, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
According to its 2025 annual report, Re-turn\u2019s key sources of income include producer and importer fees, sales of collected material and unredeemed deposits.<\/p>\n
Its costs include collecting, processing and recycling, engaging the public and running and enhancing the scheme.<\/p>\n
What is done with all the bottles and cans?<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Re-turn said returned containers are collected, sorted, baled and sold to specialist reprocessors for recycling. <\/p>\n
Material captured through the DRS is collected separately from other recyclable materials that would be collected in dry recycling bins.<\/p>\n
Seeing as the material is collected separately, there is no cross contamination and the scheme produces recycled material with purity levels of at least 98 per cent. <\/p>\n
This exceeds the about 95 per cent purity level required to process PET into food-grade recycled material for new drinks containers, the spokesman said. <\/p>\n
Ireland does not have a facility capable of processing collected bottles into food-grade recycled PET for new drinks containers, so the material is exported to specialist reprocessors.<\/p>\n
The scheme is generating enough PET to support the commercial viability of domestic bottle-to-bottle recycling capacity, and Re-turn is progressing a competitive process to develop one, the spokesman said. <\/p>\n
What happens to the money not claimed back?<\/p>\n
Unredeemed deposits form part of the scheme\u2019s funding model. <\/p>\n
In 2025, the net unredeemed deposit income stood at \u20ac60.1 million, a \u20ac6.6 million decrease from 2024, when the net unredeemed deposit income was \u20ac66.7 million.<\/p>\n
Re-turn uses unclaimed money to meet the costs of operating the scheme, including retailer handling fees, transport and logistics, infrastructure investment, consumer education, technology, staffing and other operational expenses, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
As return rates increase towards the scheme\u2019s 90 per cent target by 2029, income from unredeemed deposits is expected to decline.<\/p>\n
How many containers were returned in 2025?<\/p>\n
In 2025, <\/b>1,434,857,656 containers were returned, accounting for 30,917 tonnes of material returned for recycling.<\/p>\n
This was divided between 685,728,719 plastic bottles and 749,128,937 cans returned.<\/p>\n
Has Re-turn made a profit in the past? <\/p>\n
Re-turn is a not-for-profit organisation and is designed to operate on a break-even basis over time, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
It recorded a surplus after tax of \u20ac34.4 million in 2025. Re-turn used \u20ac13.8 million of this to contribute to the scheme\u2019s legally required contingency reserve, which a <\/p>\n
ring-fenced fund to ensure the sustainability of the scheme and manage any unforeseen circumstances. <\/p>\n
Surplus revenue is not distributed to members, a spokesman said, rather it is retained to meet the scheme\u2019s operating, working-capital and other financial obligations and to support future investment. <\/p>\n
This includes investment in circular economy initiatives that strengthen Ireland\u2019s recycling infrastructure, such as the development of Ireland\u2019s first domestic food-grade recycled PET facility, the spokesman said.<\/p>\n
What is Return for Children?<\/p>\n
Return for Children is a fundraising initiative supporting Barretstown, Barnardos Ireland, Childline by ISPCC, the Jack and Jill Children\u2019s Foundation, LauraLynn Ireland\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospice and Make-A-Wish Ireland.<\/p>\n
More than \u20ac540,000 has been raised through the initiative, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
About \u20ac1.67 million has been raised for charities through the scheme overall, including more than \u20ac1 million donated through the optional donation feature available on the 1,700 reverse vending machines.<\/p>\n
More than 5,400 schools, clubs, charities and community organisations are using the scheme to raise funds.<\/p>\n
What percentage of containers are not returned? <\/p>\n
In 2025, 23.6 per cent of containers were not returned through the DRS, according to Re-turn\u2019s annual report for that year. However, a spokesman said these may have been recycled in other ways.<\/p>\n
He said the overall recycling rate for containers now exceeded 90 per cent when accounting for the amount also recycled through mixed-dry recycling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2024, the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) was launched in Ireland, requiring consumers to pay a deposit on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,46093,18,19,17],"class_list":["post-623675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-deposit-return-scheme","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117049031815752258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}