Über 66 Mio. € nicht beansprucht aus der Einzahlungsreturnschema
https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0808/1527608-deposit-return-scheme/
Von NothingHatesYou
Über 66 Mio. € nicht beansprucht aus der Einzahlungsreturnschema
https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0808/1527608-deposit-return-scheme/
Von NothingHatesYou
32 Kommentare
Irish consumers last year turned their back on €66.7m when they failed to cash in their deposits for drink containers through the Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).
That is according to the 2024 annual report for Re-Turn which shows that the failure by consumers to redeem the €66m worth in deposits for their drink containers was the chief reason behind the State-backed firm to record a pre-tax surplus of €51.3m for 2024.
Convenient news to drop on 8pm of a Friday night… EDIT: See my separate comment. The annual report has been out since July 25.
The article goes on to note comments from the annual report, wherein its suggested the surplus cash is going to be used to re-invest in the scheme, pay day Day 1 costs, a Revenue settlement etc. The report comments that as the scheme beds in, lesser unclaimed deposits would be expected.
Never the less, millions upon millions of pre-tax profit is hardly going to land well.
I must admit I haven’t used it. But I don’t actually buy many single use items that have the deposit in the first place
It is not „profit“, because the Re-Turn company is a specifically non-profit entity, and the money is officially ringfenced for the purposes of improving the scheme.
Among other projects, this includes a tender process for the construction and operation of a PET plastic recycling factory for Ireland, bringing jobs to Ireland. Previously PET waste was sent abroad for processing because we did not have the volumes of pure waste which would justify it.
Secondly, the unclaimed deposits are already dropping significantly… in 2025 we’re up to 91% recycling, which means unclaimed deposits are down to only 9%. As this continues to drop, the surplus will continue to reduce.
A sign of wealth in the country
For the record, the annual report has been published for weeks. It was on the Re-Turn website from July 25.
https://re-turn.ie/re-turn-2024-annual-report/
This was always the Government plan. The system is a nightmare.
Half the time you see it there is a queue and one of the machines is full or broken.
Never mind the fact that you have to spend the voucher in the shop you recycle in or queue up to get cash back. It should be usable at any supermarket you want.
46.5 million euro to empty the machines and bring the waste to the port? No mention of the millions they get paid for the waste.
15.7 million for „administration“? They have 29 administrators, so after the 4.6 million for marketing, thats 418,000 euro spent per administrator.
There are 12 directors who are employed by the drinks and recycling companies. They were paid an average of 50,000 euro each last year to hold 15 meetings.
They have 5 „Key Management Personel“ who were paid on average 220,000 euro each last year.
Hopefully they start to upgrade the machines to allow for bulk return. Pain in the hoop feeding them one by one. Even one in three machines would be a massive improvement and allow them to distribute the one they take out to elsewhere
Try it sometime
Use it to build some houses.
I’m about €300 of it as a rough estimate. Time is money and I ain’t queueing for busy machines at Dunnes before my shop. My recycling bin is just fine thank you.
That’s also 79 weeks of not hearing ‘Did you bring the recycling bottles?’ / ‘why do I have to think of absolutely fucking everything’ / ‘are you ever going to do anything with those bottles in the utility?’
€3.80 per week to not give my wife more ammo for nagging? I’d pay €10
I have bags of cans to get rid of tomorrow. Always reminds me that I drink too much. Will buy more cans with the money I get.
Yet to find a machine broken or big queues but your right about the receipt. There should be an app you can use to receive the money and use anywhere
The entire scheme is a pain in the houp.
I wish nothing but misery on whoever convinced every supermarket in the country to buy machines that take one can at a time
Well, one of the reasons is that those cunts getting really pissy when you forget to use the recipet the same day, and also the bloody ink on them rubs off really bloody easy. 😛 Just give us a bloody card to top up on like bus cards.
I’ll take it.
This scheme is the biggest collective waste of time…
The whole thing is a joke in my opinion and thus far I have refused to use it. Same with my friends.
Someone will probably tell me why this wouldn’t work, but surely the country investing in some technology to make green bins more efficient in terms of PET waste (e.g. cans) would have been a better way forward.
I don’t drive I walk to the supermarket I carry all the bottles and cans down half the time the machines are not working now and i must bring them home again.
I am still paying for my green bin which i used to fill with cans and bottles to be recycled. Not to worry some of the boys are making money out of it.
Hopefully, they’ll upgrade it to emulate in Japan; you can use the recycling to offset your electrical, gas, or phone bill.
Altho the bulk return machines could improve the returning process, but how many of you (people who brings back 2-3-4-5 full bags at a time) empty and dry the cans/bottles properly? It’s literally on the DRS website. In our store the 1at-a-time machine gets cleaned at least 5 times a day, and it’s a 5k town only. Now imagine somebody just pouring in a full bag of dirty cans (from the side of the road) and waiting for the staff to clean/fix the machine after every 2nd can…
This was always the plan.
Seems like a great scheme – let’s wait until people start tearing the bins apart and destroying the place with litter.
Thats all me, putting the cans in and forgetting 😅
Yeah I know. My wife seems to be storing all €66m in my back garden for some super uber massive machine to take it to.
What happens to the unclaimed money? What’s it spent on?
So many sports clubs, community centres, community groups and the like were offered and availed of bins and bags to collect bottles and in general people have been dropping them off in these bins out of convenience and to help fundraise. But all those bins have to go to the same spot as everyone else, the one can or bottle at a time. An impossible task unless you commandeer the machine for a day and find someone to spend the day doing it. And then piss everyone else off who wants to return their own bottles or cans.
So I reckon a significant of that unclaimed amount has been gathered but not claimed due to the inconvenience. Of course most of the unclaimed amount has been thrown in domestic recycling or general waste.
I’d rather spend the extra little bit than stand there wasting my time putting bottles in one by one like a broke sap.
As someone who recycled every can and plastic bottle religiously for years, this is just another example of people who are inside of the rules being punished due to the Shitheads in our society not being arsed to do the v right thing ever.
The depressing part is that the Shitheads don’t bother with the scheme anyhow.
It will be an unpopular opinion but I refuse to use the machines, between needing to hoard the plastic and the effort/time involved, it’s not personally worth it for me.
I’m happy to recycle using my green bin. IMO this was a pure pet project for the Green Party and instead more work should have been done to encourage and improve our existing system.
Who gets the unclaimed money? Great scheme but where does the unclaimed money go to?