Ireland’s first-ever bottle deposit return scheme has gone from near-zero uptake to a nationwide recycling habit in just eight months. Launched in February 2024 C.E., the scheme collected just 2 million containers in its first month. By August 2024 C.E., that figure had climbed to 111 million — a turnaround that ranks as the biggest behavioral shift in Irish environmental policy since the country introduced a plastic bag tax in 2001 C.E.
At a glance
- Deposit return scheme: Since February 2024 C.E., Irish consumers have returned 630 million plastic bottles and cans to reverse vending machines at supermarkets and shops across the country.
- Recycling targets: Ireland must hit a 77% return rate by 2025 C.E. and 90% by 2029 C.E. under EU-wide circular economy rules — legal benchmarks that drove the scheme into law.
- Reverse vending machines: Shoppers receive €0.15 per can and €0.25 per plastic bottle, a deposit paid at purchase and refunded on return — giving consumers a direct financial reason to recycle.
From frustration to habit
The scheme did not start smoothly. Machines jammed. Bins at retail sites filled faster than staff could empty them. Social media complaints piled up. Many consumers argued Ireland already had a functional kerbside recycling system and saw the new deposit as an extra hassle.
Ciaran Foley, chief executive of Re-turn — the company mandated by the Irish government to run the scheme — says the early backlash was intense. “When we went live, we got lots of resistance from the public,” he told The Guardian. “Social media can be brutal.”
But the numbers tell a different story now. Monthly returns grew from 2 million to more than 110 million in eight months. For a country of just over 5 million people, that scale of adoption is striking.
Why people came around
For many Irish consumers, the shift came down to simple economics. Ciava Dunning, a train driver on the Dublin–Westport line, says she noticed passengers started carrying their rubbish off trains once they realized the cans and bottles were worth something. She now regularly collects empties from her household of five and drops them at the machine in her local Dunnes Stores supermarket.
“You don’t want to waste the €0.15 deposit, so you get used to it,” she says.
Office workers have found creative uses for the scheme too. John Eustace, who returns bottles from his workplace, describes the refund as “like the office petty cash.” Beyond individual households, the scheme has also raised money for charities and given people experiencing homelessness a way to earn small amounts of cash by collecting discarded containers.
Foley frames the appeal simply: “Ultimately, it’s a pretty easy way of people feeling good about themselves, because a lot of people do want to do recycling, to do the right thing for the planet.”
The logistics behind the shift
Running a deposit return scheme at national scale is harder than it looks. Suppliers had to redesign production lines to add Re-turn logos. Coca-Cola, which typically uses international barcodes across 82 countries, had to create Ireland-specific codes to prevent containers bought in Northern Ireland from being fraudulently returned south of the border — a real concern for supermarkets in border counties like Donegal and Monaghan.
Retailers pay between €12,000 and €25,000 per reverse vending machine, and earn 2.2 cents per container deposited to offset that cost. Getting to break-even depends on returns staying within the Irish system.
Similar deposit return schemes have been running in Germany since 2006 C.E. and across much of northern Europe for decades. The U.K. has repeatedly delayed its own scheme and now targets a 2026 C.E. launch. Ireland’s experience — both the difficult start and the eventual success — offers a realistic roadmap for countries still in the planning phase.
What still needs work
Ireland’s return rate of roughly 110 million containers a month is well short of the 1.7 billion cans and plastic bottles sold in the country each year. A significant share still ends up in general bins, at sports venues, and on streets. Croke Park, the national Gaelic football stadium, has installed 400 dedicated red bins for containers. Dublin City Council is testing “surround shelves” on 80 street bins — external ledges where people can leave returnables for others to collect, keeping them clean and out of general waste.
The science of materials makes closing that gap worth the effort. A PET plastic bottle can be recycled up to seven times. Aluminum cans can be recycled indefinitely without loss of quality — making every container returned a genuine loop back into the supply chain rather than a one-way trip to landfill.
Still, Ireland has real distance to cover. Reaching the EU’s 90% target by 2029 C.E. will require consistent returns from sports grounds, public events, and on-the-go consumption — contexts where habits are harder to shift than at home. The infrastructure and the will are there. The final stretch will take more work.
Read more
For more on this story, see: The Guardian
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- U.K. cancer death rates drop to their lowest level on record
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Ireland
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