A national Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is being introduced to encourage more people to recycle drinks containers. It works by charging anyone who buys a drink a small deposit for the plastic bottle or can that it comes in, which is refunded when the container is returned for recycling.
DRS will increase the quantity of bottles and cans collected for recycling and will result in less going to landfill, incineration or becoming litter and, when captured in a separate collection stream, will also improve the quality of recycled material.
In July 2022, I approved an application from Deposit Return Scheme Ireland CLG (trading as Re-turn) to operate as an approved body under the DRS Regulations. Re-turn is a new, not-for-profit company set up by beverage producers and retailers to meet their obligations under the DRS Regulations. Re-turn is responsible for all operational matters relating to the DRS.
I launched DRS in November 2022 when online registrations for producers and retailers opened (www.re-turn.ie). To date, over 90% of producers have registered with Re-turn and about 2,500 retail stores, including all major retail chains, have completed Phase 1 of the registration process.
DRS is a major project involving the development of complex IT, infrastructure and communication systems and Re-turn has been working with me and all relevant stakeholders to prepare for go-live in February 2024. Significant progress has been made to date including:
• A Communications Plan for Business-to-Business engagement, targeting producers and retailers is underway and a Business-to-Consumer campaign will start in Q4 2023,
• Producer fees were published in January 2023,
• Retailer handling fees were also published in January 2023, along with exemptions and a financial support package for small retailers,
• Specification for reverse vending machines (RVM) and list of approved RVM suppliers was published in January 2023,
• Planning exemption regulations for RVMs were signed in May 2023,
• Contracts for an integrated IT system and for the collection, counting and processing of returned containers are in place.
