Over 21 million bottles and cans have been returned to shops and machines since the start of the Deposit Return Scheme. 

Re-turn recorded its highest daily collection rate to date on Friday, March 29th, with 1.2 million drink containers returned. 

More than 2.2 million drink containers were collected between March 16th and March 18th, with Re-turn predicting another uptake in returns this Bank Holiday weekend. 

There are currently 2,300 reverse vending machines available across the country, which has reportedly facilitated over 6.89 million transactions. 

Deposit Return Scheme

The Deposit Return Scheme, which added a small levy to bottles and cans that can then be refunded when the empty container is returned, was launched on February 1st.

The Irish Independent reported this week that just €1.2 million in deposits was returned to customers in the first 40 days of the scheme – a fraction of the amount the scheme is believed to have taken in over that time. 

Around five million bottles and cans are sold in Ireland every day and the minister in charge of the scheme, Ossian Smyth has previously said around €1 million in deposits should be collected every day. 

There also concerns that the increase in cost, roughly 15 cents, isn’t enough to incentivise people to return their recyclable containers to machines and shops. 

However, Re-turn CEO Ciarán Foley noted earlier this week the company is reaching their goal of one million returns per day. 

Neither shops nor Re-turn are allowed to keep unclaimed deposits, with the unclaimed cash due to be used for new recycling initiatives. 

The company also said its returns is “tracking well against similar deposit return schemes in the EU”, such as Slovakia. 

“In its first month, Slovakia collected 264,000 containers, while Ireland returned 2 million,” it said. 

'Gangbusters'

Mr Foley said he is happy with where the scheme is currently at. 

"We've made a brilliant start - we're up to a million a day now, we only did two million in the whole of February," he said. 

"We track ourselves against other countries so we're ahead of where we need to be. 

"This is a low time in the market in terms of these drinks; it's about to go gangbusters in the summer," he added. 

Containers that do not have the new Re-turn logo but have the additional charge can still be returned to shops and machine. 

From June 1, all drinks containers included in the Scheme will feature the Re-turn logo and barcode.