‘I’m thoroughly fed up’: The struggle to find a working deposit return scheme machine

The deposit return scheme has been running for more than two months now but there are some readers out there who remain unimpressed with the turn of events, with discontent evident even among those who were ardent recyclers already.

“I am writing you as I am just back from the weekly shop and I’m thoroughly fed up,” starts the mail from Eimear in Galway.

“As you are no doubt aware, the deposit return scheme came into effect on February 1st and with it a price increase (in the form of a “refundable deposit”) on plastic and aluminium drinks containers,” she continues.

As someone who has long taken “great care to make sure any drinks containers I use end up in the recycling bin” Eimear “wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of my usual recycling habits being made more complicated but as the goal is to improve recycling rates across the country, I figured I’d give the whole deposit return thing a go. Beside my rubbish bin, recycling bin, compost bin and glass bin now sits a dedicated drinks container bin. When said bin filled, I chucked it in the boot and brought it with me to do the weekly shop” in a large supermarket.

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What is your experience of the deposit return scheme?

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So far we are very impressed with her commitment to making the planet that little bit better and her willingness to embrace the new order. It is at this point in her story that things start to go off the rails for poor Eimear.

After hauling all her bottles into the shop she was less than impressed to see that the machine read ‘Unavailable’ and wasn’t accepting containers “so back in the boot the bin went”.

The following day when she popped into her local convenience store – one that is part of a different chain – she “lugged my recycling in and was once again greeted with ‘Unavailable’ on the return machine. And that, dear Pricewatch, is how my attempts to recycle my drinks container continued for the last two months,” she says.

[ Deposit return scheme explainer: Who gets the money if I don't collect?  ]

[ Deposit scheme refunds €1.2m to customers returning cans and plastic bottles ]

“Twice a week every week I bring my containers into one of the dozens of grocery stores in Galway city and I have yet to find a deposit return machine that is in working order and accepting cans. When I’ve asked staff if they’ll take my containers back manually, I’ve been told every time to just come back when the machine is working and so the cycle continues.”

Eimear wants to know what gives? She points out that retailers are “legally obliged to charge me a deposit on containers with the Re-Turn logo (and they’ve been charging me the deposit on containers without the Re-Turn logo or a barcode, but that’s another complaint) but the same retailers don’t seem to have any legal obligation to keep their machines running”.

She accepts that “as with any new scheme, I can understand things may not work smoothly at first but I can’t comprehend how I’ve failed to find a single working return machine. As someone who has been fastidious in making sure recyclable materials end up in the correct bin, I now feel like I’m being charged a “deposit” just so the State can say it’s doing something about our country’s lacklustre recycling rates. I can’t be the only one experiencing this problem and I’ve no idea what the solution is or when I’ll be getting my money back.”

We contacted the Re-Turn people and received an update.

“We are very sorry to hear about Eimear’s experience and appreciate her patience,” a spokeswoman said. “We are aware of reports regarding reverse vending machines (RVMs) experiencing temporary downtime and appreciate all consumers understanding and patience on this matter. Nationally, the RVM system is currently operating at an 85 per cent uptime across the network, with this number steadily increasing.”

She encouraged consumers to raise an RVM issue as soon as possible with an employee of the shop so that the retailer can notify the machine manufacturer. Consumers can also reach out directly to Re-Turn via email, chatbot or social media to report machines experiencing downtimes and Re-Turn will contact the retailer.

She said the machines could be out of order for “various reasons such as incorrect objects being inserted into the machine or when the machine is full. We remind customers that only drinks containers in PET plastic bottles, aluminium and steel cans from 150ml to three litres are included in the deposit return scheme.”

Next up is the appropriately-named Linda Waters, who noticed that the price displayed on the supermarket shelf under a 12-pack of sparkling water is €4.85 “but then when you go to pay for it, the cost is €6.65 because they add the deposit (12 x 0.15) at the till. Are retailers not obliged to display the price of the goods which in this case is actually €6.65 since the deposit is not optional?”

We asked the Re-Turn spokeswoman about this and received some clarity. “All shelf price cards must feature the deposit on a separate line. For all promotional offers that include Re-Turn logo stock, the total deposit must be displayed underneath the main pricing as an additional cost. Retailers must also include the following text, which should always be proceeded with an asterisk: ‘*Deposit applies to drinks containers featuring the Re-Turn logo.’”

Incidentally, the spokeswoman also noted that at the time of writing well over 16 million containers had been returned and that does indeed sound like a lot. But given that the scheme is close to 50 days old and more than five million qualifying receptacles are sold each day in Ireland, there must be a whole lot of people who are still discarding the bottles and cans despite having paid the deposit on them. Or maybe, like Eimear, they just can’t find a way to get their money back.