Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme collects over 2 million drinks containers in first month of operation

• 705k transactions completed
• Over 200k drinks containers collected on 29 Feb
• Over 2200 Reverse Vending Machines now available across the country

Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme is now live and Irish consumers are bringing it back! Over 705k transactions have been recorded in the month of February, resulting in over 2 million drinks containers being returned to participating shops and supermarkets nationwide.

Re-turn, the operator of the Deposit Return Scheme, recorded Thursday, 29 February as the most active day in February with just under 201,000 drinks containers returned.

 Support and participation

Ciaran Foley, CEO of Re-turn commented:

“I am really encouraged by the support and participation shown by Irish consumers during the first month of the scheme. Over this past weekend, we collected another 670,000 containers and to have nearly 3 million deposit returns at this early stage shows a willingness and commitment to reducing litter, protecting our environment and better recycling.”

There are now 2,202 Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) and over 150 manual return points across 1380 deposit return locations, facilitating the growing number of consumers helping to reduce litter and achieve our EU recycling targets.

Deposit Return Schemes are active across 15 European countries and have successfully promoted positive recycling practices. Ireland’s rates of initial participation are very strong when compared to our EU counterparts. Romania, with a population of over 19 million, launched its Deposit Return Scheme on 1 December 2023. It collected 31,000 containers in its first month of operation and 2.24 million in its second month.

 Huge behavioural change

Foley added, “We understand that this is a huge behavioural change for all Irish consumers, and we appreciate everyone’s patience during the four-month transition period as retailers sell through non-deposit products, together with Re-turn logo stock and some stock that may incur a deposit but does not feature the Re-turn logo.

Please be assured that if you pay a deposit on a drinks container, you’ll get it back when returned empty and undamaged to Reverse Vending Machines in participating shops nationwide. From June, all drinks containers in plastic bottles or aluminium cans included in the scheme from 150ml to 3 litres will feature the Re-turn logo.”

The Deposit Return Scheme is a practical circular economy initiative that aims to create a closed-loop recycling system guaranteeing that the material is returned and recycled. The EU has set Ireland a target for the separate collection of 77% by 2025 and 90% by 2029. We currently recycle approximately 60% of drinks containers and Deposit Return is a proven method of increasing recycling rates.

Re-turn has created an FAQ page on the website for any questions which consumers may have and they are strongly encouraged to reach out to info@re-turn.ie if they have any further queries.