{"id":631529,"date":"2026-08-11T11:13:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631529\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T11:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:13:32","slug":"deposit-return-scheme-divides-opinion-as-an-environmentalist-i-truly-hate-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631529\/","title":{"rendered":"Deposit return scheme divides opinion: \u2018As an environmentalist I truly hate it\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, one Irish Times reader spent more than 90 minutes trying to return a bag of containers at deposit return machines in Dublin<\/a> city centre. After trying five different locations where all machines were broken, he admitted defeat and headed home. <\/p>\n

The Irish Times<\/a> received more than 150 responses to a callout asking people about their experiences with the deposit return scheme<\/a> (DRS).<\/p>\n

Alex Kennedy from Dublin 8 said he returned to the same locations the following day where three machines were working again. However, they were full, and he couldn\u2019t return his bottles and cans. <\/p>\n

He said he tries to return his containers once a week as his home has \u201cvery limited storage\u201d, but he can usually only return them once every six weeks due to the machines being \u201cunreliable\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he supports the principle of the scheme. \u201cA financial incentive to return plastic bottles and cans is necessary, and the results show that people will respond to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having spent time in Indonesia and the Philippines, he saw how unchecked plastic waste can damage communities, waterways and the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst the imperfect reality of mixed recycling, including contamination, export, incineration and landfill, collecting these materials separately is a worthwhile initiative.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, he said \u201csupporting the scheme does not mean accepting its failures\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kennedy said his experience makes \u201creports of substantial executive and board compensation, administrative costs and large sums from unredeemed deposits difficult to celebrate\u201d, saying that the unredeemed deposit represented \u201cinconvenience, lack of access or a system that has failed to return someone\u2019s money for profit\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said there are \u201cvery visible social consequences\u201d, such as city bins being searched for containers and recycling bags \u201ctorn open\u201d.<\/p>\n

Feidhlim O\u2019Hanlon, from Co Wicklow, described the DRS as an \u201cexcellent service\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201cwell designed\u201d and \u201ceasy to use from the consumer perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like plastic bags levy and the smoking ban and the conversion to metric distances, the country does this stuff well.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s just a pity that we need it in the first place and it probably only touches at the edges of what the country needs to do to meet carbon targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he visits the machines a couple of times a week, taking whatever is in his home.<\/p>\n

He often donates the bottles to the chosen charity at his local store \u2013 the Irish Cancer Society.<\/p>\n

Kate Irvine, who lives in Dublin, said she \u201ctruly hates the scheme\u201d. She said she is an \u201cactive environmentalist and Green Party supporter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has turned my kitchen and car boot into daily garbage units and, as a taxpayer and a recycler, it has turned me into a waste disposal unpaid employee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch every citizen having to inefficiently bring every individual can and bottle to a recycle point and one by one feed them into the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has considered moving country over how \u201cannoying and upsetting\u201d she finds the scheme<\/p>\n

She said the only \u201csalvage point is maybe more plastic is being collected, whether it\u2019s really recyclable is debatable, but hopefully it is being contained rather than going into the ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n

Irvine said she would be \u201cover the moon if the Government disbanded this scheme\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Co Kerry, Jane Murphy of Woodlands Park, a caravan and camping park in Tralee, said for the past two summers she has set up dedicated bins for guests to donate their cans and bottles.<\/p>\n

Tralee Meals on Wheels collects the containers. Last year, more than \u20ac1,400 was raised.<\/p>\n

She said the guests have \u201creally embraced the initiative\u201d. \u201cThey\u2019re delighted,\u201d she said, as they don\u2019t have to return their containers and are \u201cdoing their bit for charity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it means a little extra work for our team to empty the bins and prepare them for collection, it\u2019s something we\u2019re proud to do. Not only does it support a local charity, but it also reduces the amount of recyclable material going into our own recycling bins, helping to lower our waste costs slightly. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, however, it ensures that the cans and bottles are returned through the DRS and recycled correctly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eoin Kelly, who lives in Dublin, described the DRS as a \u201ccomplete failure\u201d.<\/p>\n

He recently attended All Together Now festival<\/a> in Co Waterford and said there was \u201cno way\u201d to return containers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe best available [way] was to donate cans and bottles in specific bins which were not available in the campsite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole scheme does nothing to address the amount of single-use plastic produced. It\u2019s just another pointless waste of time and money on already hard-pressed consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it is \u201cnot having the desired effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe volume of waste has to be reduced. This scheme does nothing to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marianne Heemskerk, who is from the Netherlands but who lives in Co Mayo, said she thinks the DRS is \u201ca great thing\u201d, saying it \u201cstops people littering the roadside or countryside with empty plastic bottles, often thrown out of car windows\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is money involved, people are a bit more careful, even 15 or 25 cents.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she generally avoids buying plastic and called herself \u201canti-plastic\u201d, saying that she has her own reusable bottle instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHolland has it (the DRS), and it works there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Paul Quinn from Dublin said the DRS is \u201cthe most shameless and opportunistic money grab by an Irish government in recent years, with quite obvious negative and detrimental societal side effects\u201d.<\/p>\n

He returns his containers every couple of weeks, saying he is motivated to do so \u201cby way of a small individualistic protest\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the Government \u201cshould readjust their immoral compass, admit they made a mistake, have created more problems than they claim to have fixed and return to a perfectly working old mechanism of recycling\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish they\u2019d have stuck to the old adage, if it\u2019s not broke don\u2019t fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks ago, one Irish Times reader spent more than 90 minutes trying to return a bag of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,46093,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,117628,7,8],"class_list":["post-631529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-deposit-return-scheme","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-re-turn","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117076584719762822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631529","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=631529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}