Chief Executive Officer of Re-turn, Ciaran Foley, commented on the early progress made by the Deposit Return Scheme: “I am greatly encouraged to see how the scheme is taking hold in Ireland and we have consumers to thank for that. We have made great strides when it comes to implementing the scheme and over the weekend alone, we collected over 670,000 containers. This figure will only continue to grow. We are committed to delivering the Deposit Return Scheme and helping Ireland reach its recycling targets of 77% by 2025 and early indications suggest we could reach this ahead of schedule.”
There are now 2193 Reverse Vending Machines across 1380 return locations facilitating the growing number of consumers participating in the circular economy initiative that aims to increase the separate collection and recycling rates of single-use drinks containers.
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 other recent successful launches. Romania, with a population of over 19 million, launched its Deposit Return Scheme on December 1 2023. It collected 31,000 containers in its first month of operation, 2.24m in its second month and 5 million in the first two weeks of February.
