Nine-in-ten people would like to see all drinks containers included in Ireland’s new deposit and return scheme.
The new scheme will see people paying a deposit on all plastic bottles and aluminium cans and getting their money back for recycling them.
According to a new poll however, 88% of Irish adults would favour an ‘all-in’ model which would see metal cans, plastic water bottles, plastic milk bottles, glass bottles, coffee cups, and drink cartons and pouches included in the scheme.
The poll, carried out by Red C on behalf of VOICE Ireland, also found that 78% of people would like to see different deposit fees based on the size and type of the container.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, VOICE coordinator Mindy O’Brien said the proposed scheme only covers plastic and aluminium because those are the most common ‘on-the-go’ containers.
“That is what we mostly drink on the go, the plastic bottles and the aluminium cans, and we drink the glass bottles at home,” she said.
“Our concern is that, if you don’t include glass bottles, you might have producers who say, oh gosh, I am putting a deposit on these containers, we are going to switch our products to the other containers.”
Did you know in Ireland we send around 300M plastic bottles & 150M cans to landfill every year? What a waste! We’re proud to join the Dublin #CircleCity campaign which is saving plastic bottles & cans from ending up in landfill with colourful new bins in the city centre. #Recycle pic.twitter.com/Fye4CZ0Moa
— Dublin City Council (@DubCityCouncil) October 19, 2020
She said the scheme should be future proofed to ensure that glass bottles are not just recycled but re-used.
“What we envision is going back to what we had in the 70s and 60s when we had glass bottles that we reused,” she said.
“So, rather than create a deposit refund scheme for single use items, we would like to see it go for reuse so that when you have your glass bottle, you drink it, you bring it back, they wash it, they refill it and they redistribute up to 40 or 50 times.
“That would be a much better use of resources rather than just recycling so we would like to future-proof this for the years to come.”
In a statement, Friends of the Earth Ireland Director Oisín Coghlan said: “We’ve called for a deposit scheme in Ireland for years, but now we risk shooting ourselves in the foot by creating a programme that is nowhere near comprehensive enough.”
“Today we call on the Government to design a scheme that includes all materials and a variable deposit level, similar to what is found in Scandinavia, to encourage sustainable choices.”
The new Deposit Return Scheme is expected to be introduced next year.
A public consultation on how it should be structured is currently open on Gov.ie.
