OPINION: Has anyone else noticed this in supermarkets? It's absolutely disgusting
Ireland’s recycling rate for plastic bottles and aluminium and steel cans has jumped from 49% to 91% since the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme - but it has a nasty side effect for actual people
The Deposit Return Scheme, whereby we all bag up and bring our cans and bottles to return machines, has long been hailed as a great success by the Government. 1.6 billion cans and bottles were fed into machines in Ireland in 2024 alone after the scheme launched in February 2024.
Ireland’s recycling rate for plastic bottles and aluminium and steel cans has jumped from 49% to 91% since the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme. Of this, 76% is directly captured via the DRS, with an additional 15% collected through mixed dry recycling. So, it is fair to call it a success.
That's not to say it is still a pain in the you-know-what traipsing into the supermarket every week only to see a queue of people with black bags to the roof, all stuffed full of cans and bottles to offload. The wait is one thing, but queuing and standing at the machines has become a truly disgusting experience.
I've noticed in a few supermarkets they've started to put air fresheners on top of the machines such is the smell of stale beer and wine permeating from them. I invariably end up pouring the dregs of my own cans and bottles on myself as I feed them into the often less than cooperative machines. I hear others mumbling profanities too, suggesting they end up with some week-old liquid on their clothes too. Most of it ends on the floor.
If you're not knocked out by the smell, you're lucky if you can peel your shoe off the sticky floor to finally head down the aisles to pick up your groceries. It's not really the fault of the staff who I often see cleaning up around the machines but the volume of people using the machines makes it impossible to keep up. More than four million cans and bottles a day are being fed into these machines.
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It's hard to know what the solution is. I know a machine that can take 100 cans and bottles at a time rather than one at a time was recently unveiled in Dublin, but as far as I'm aware it's the only one in the country. More of those would be helpful to actual people forced to use the scheme to get their own money back.
I'm all for helping the environment and the scheme is, as the Government says, a huge success for the planet, but it hasn't been a huge success for my nostrils or the soles of my shoes!