Wheelchair users remain “disengaged and disillusioned” with the Deposit Return Scheme, the Irish Wheelchair Association has said. 

Since the scheme launched in February 2024, 1.6 billion bottles and cans have been recycled through the scheme. 

It means that close to 800 million more containers are being recycled every year than there were prior to the scheme’s launch. 

However, despite strong public support for the scheme, €66.7 million from unrecycled cans and bottles remains unclaimed. 

On Lunchtime Live, Irish Wheelchair Association National Access Programme Manager Rosaleen Lally said she believes some of that is because many disabled people struggle to return their items. 

“We would have been contacted really early in the process from our members with [about] the inaccessibility of the machines themselves, the inability of members to have transport to get to the machines,” she explained. 

“I myself live here in Belmullet, in Mayo, so am very aware of rural areas and the issues that members have with public transport. 

“Our members were disengaged and disillusioned with the scheme from the very outset.” 

A Deposit Return Scheme machine at a supermarket in Dublin, 1-1-23. Image: Jack Quann/Newstalk

Ms Lally continued that when they raised their concerns with Re-Turn, they were told retailers would be “encouraged to support” people with disabilities use the DRS. 

“There has been no improvement,” she said. 

“Our members have to pay this unfair tax and a lot of them are unable to return their [bottles]. 

“So, it’s really unfair.” 

A DRS machine. Picture by: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

Also on the programme, listener Patrick said he believes the DRS should be scrapped entirely. 

“I was of the view that it was discriminatory against people with disabilities - elderly people and people with impaired mobility,” he said. 

“I think it has proved to be the case; ‘We told you so’, I would say to the people behind this scheme. 

“Because the figures now prove that there’s lots of people who are not claiming because they can’t get the bottles and cans to the door.” 

He insisted that the entire scheme is “just farcical” and the Government should scrap it. 

“It’s my opinion, we should go back to the way we used to have,” he said. 

“We used to recycle them in our own green bins, we got on fine and got the job done. 

“There was none of this discrimination.”

Main image: A split of wheelchair user and a DRS. Pictures by: Alamy and Gareth Chaney/Collins.