Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme is working well and is “about to go gangbusters” in the summer, according to the head of the company running it.
It comes as millions of euros have gone unclaimed in the first 40 days of the can and bottle recycling scheme.
Re-turn CEO Ciarán Foley said the summer will see the scheme really take off.
He took your questions on Newstalk Breakfast.
'I'm still putting bottles in my green bin'
"No, unfortunately that's not OK," he said.
"This is called a separate collection scheme because we need to get as much of the one product back to one place as possible.
"Currently we achieve about an 80% recycle quality rate through the green bin... we can get that to 98% by having all of the same product in one place.
"That means we can recycle up to seven times the same bottle; but really importantly, if we can get enough product in one place that means we can build a recycling centre on the island of Ireland.
"Currently most of the recycling goes abroad".
'Shops charging for bottles that don't have Re-turn symbols'
"We're still in a transition period," he said.
"There were some products, we call them international barcodes, that producers were able to retain that did carry a deposit.
"You'll always get your deposit back if you've paid a deposit.
"Importantly, once [we get to] the end of the transition period at the end of May everything will have a logo on it and everything will have a deposit on it".
'Where does the money go?'
"We're a not-for-profit organisation, we're here to clean up the country," he said.
"We get money through producers paying to put product on the market, we also get the money from the sale of the material.
"We do get some funding from unredeemed deposits - but we don't want your money, we want you to bring the containers back."
'What will happen at music festivals?'
"We're working on all sorts of solutions for all sorts of issues at the moment," he said.
"The plan for music festivals is we will turn up with our Reverse Vending Machines.
"We'll work with charities who would collect the bottles and cans for us and then bring them to us to put into the Reverse Vending Machines".
Re-turn CEO Ciarán Foley speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, 27-3-24. Image: NewstalkMr 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.
Re-turn says engagement with the scheme to date has been 'positive' with 15.8 million containers returned.
