The public is being urged to give their views on the design of a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans.

The Programme for Government – Our Shared Future – and the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy set out the Government's commitment to introduce a Deposit and Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles (up to 3 litres in volume) and aluminium cans.

The public consultation paper published suggests a deposit of €0.20 per container, with submissions invited from the public and stakeholders on the design of the Scheme. The primary function of a DRS is to increase recycling rates and support the circular economy by keeping materials in productive use and reducing demand for new materials. They have also been shown to assist in the reduction of littering of beverage containers.

-- Advertisement --

Deposit and return schemes have been around for decades and were originally designed by the beverage industry as a way of ensuring the return of bottles so they could be washed, refilled and resold. In Ireland, some people will remember this as a system that was previously used to ensure that glass milk and soft-drink bottles were returned for reuse. In a DRS a refundable deposit is applied to beverage containers to incentivise consumers to return their beverage containers for recycling or reuse.