more than 20 million beverage containers and cans have been collected

Since the deposit refund program began, more than 20 million beverage containers and cans have been collected.

Friday was an important day for the “Return” program, as it recorded the highest number of beverage containers collected in a single day with more than 1.2 million (1,267,178) returned. This marked a milestone in the program.

The increase in earnings highlights increased public support and participation in the plan, which began on February 1.

Kieran Foley, who is Return’s chief executive officer, has said that consumer support across the country has been very favorable. As more products with the Return logo are introduced to the market, high performance figures are being recorded and are expected to continue to increase as we become accustomed to the system.

During the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, March 16-18, more than 2.2 million beverage containers were collected. The Re-turn organization commented that Easter is also shaping up to be another holiday weekend with a significant amount of packaging collected.

Return currently has 2,300 reverse vending machines in operation throughout the country. As a result, more than 6.89 million transactions have been carried out efficiently.

A plan has been formulated with the objective of addressing the problem that 40% of beverage containers and cans in households are not properly collected. This translates into an alarming figure of 800 million containers not recycled annually.

The EU has a target for Ireland to achieve 77% segregation and collection of plastic beverage bottles and aluminum cans by 2025.

According to European Union plans, this target is expected to rise to 90% by 2029.

Customers have the opportunity to recover the money they put down as a deposit by returning empty plastic bottles or aluminum cans in good condition at authorized stores and supermarkets throughout the country.

In addition, a coupon is offered that can be redeemed at the time of purchase in-store or as cash back.

In its first phase, Return’s has proven to be performing well compared to other deposit return systems in the European Union.

At the beginning of 2022, Slovakia implemented a plan that makes it a benchmark country thanks to its models and population size similar to other places.

During the first month, Slovakia collected 264,000 containers, while Ireland returned a staggering 2 million containers in the same time period.

During the second month, the number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in Slovakia reached 8 million, while in Ireland that figure was exceeded by more than 10 million as of March 18. This initial achievement demonstrates the success of the plan implemented.

Ireland’s strategy to meet and exceed EU recycling targets has been strengthened by increased participation in the program. According to Foley, this increase sets a positive trajectory for future harvests and has a favorable impact on the environment.

If you need to know where is the nearest place to return your deposits, you can access the location map.