Kieran Cuddihy gets honest about the Deposit Return Scheme one month on

A craft beer company has estimated it will lose 20% of its workforce to comply with the new Deposit Return Scheme.
Premier International Beers owner Dean McGuiness said the cost of adding Re-turn labels to their products is €70,000 a year - the equivalent of two staff members' wages.
The Deposit Return Scheme was launched earlier this month to encourage the recycling of plastic bottles and aluminium cans.
It introduced a deposit of 15c on containers ranging from 150ml to 500mls, while a deposit of 25c was added to containers over 500ml - which can be claimed back through reverse vending machines or over the counter.
On Moncrieff today, Mr McGuinness said the scheme has got off to a rocky start due to the Government’s insistence that all containers must have the Re-Turn logo.
Mr McGuinness said this is forcing his company to ask brewers to change their can design to comply with the scheme.
“We import 40 different products and are approaching brewers asking them to spend thousands of euros to change the design of their product and print up between 250,000 to 1,000,000 cans at a time for the Irish market,” he said.
“We are buying a relatively small amount of speciality beers and they look at us and ask ‘are you mad, this is absolutely crazy?’”
Mr McGuinness said the scheme favours big breweries.
“The design is printed onto the can so in order to change the design you need to have an entirely new print run of cans," he said.
“A minimum print run of cans used to be 250,000 - now it is typically between 500,000 and 1,000,000.
“Speciality beers would obviously be a small fraction of that so you’d have to ask someone to change something and then to sell 90 or 95% in another market.
“If you’re Guinness or Heineken and selling millions of cans - you can spend a few thousand euros to change the design as that cost is spread over millions of cans.”

[@ablarousse5273]

We've long been recycling our plastic bottles, etc., by putting them in the blue bin. We're already paying for that service. So why pay for another service that's totally unnecessary? We're trying to figure out how to avoid buying things that have a deposit on them.

[@michaelahern6821]

This is just a scam that needs to be abolished ..

[@neilsalway5531]

... and what happens to the money that never gets reclaimed cause its too much of a pain to reclaim? I'll probably just keep recycling as normal and get penalised for it. This will not change the behaviour of the minority who think our roads and hedges are their private dustbin - 25 cent is never going to bring about behavioural change.

[@johnlee2579]

Extra trucks on the road for collecting these bottles and more vans on the road with maintenance people to service and repair machines.

[@hidemehere1]

Great idea until put in practice, basically upped the prices on everything. So Now my deposit, paying bin charges and diesel cost to add for 1.20?

[@neilsalway5531]

...and dont get me started on how much it must have cost (energy, materials, co2 emissions etc) to manufacture those machines in the supermarkets... anyone would think this is just another one of those jobs for the boys

[@dragonbillylee4781]

More great journalism from Newstalk. And not a word about what happened to a SEVEN year old girl in Celbridge.

[@annettereddall8982]

What's going on there

[@Lynda-z9v]

I personally buy glass bottles now because I'm sick of these clowns bringing in different rules. I don't drive and I'm not dragging all these plastic bottles to a supermarket.

[@fiverZ]

You don't need a car to carry a bag?

[@Lynda-z9v]

@@fiverZ It depends on the size of the bag, clown 🤡

[@pauldonohoe3646]

​@@fiverZ That's a statement, not a question.

[@fiverZ]

@@pauldonohoe3646 ?

[@paulcairn1169]

When you pay to have a recycling bin forced into your family waste infrastructure and then find it costly to actually use it as intended, simply becomes farsical and inconvient to actually prevail in all honesty. This is without question an extra tax on us all and extra taxes hurt only one section of society. Lets say a pensioner without a car gets there shopping delivered and pays the extra tax on packaging who returns the empties for their reninbursement, fairies maybe. I would like to see where all this recycling actually ends up as we pay heavily to take it away and then to eventually get it removed after use.

[@tomkeaney3121]

I think it's the first time I agreed with Grinwit on anything.

[@atourdeforce]

Why is he Grinwit, what foes that even mean lol?

[@tomkeaney3121]

@atourdeforce He always sounds like he is grinning at something and he is a half wit.

[@Mark-99999]

Biggest waste of time ever!!

[@fiverZ]

How so?

[@Lemonsandpeppers123]

We have recycled for years i don’t understand what they were up to. I suppose now they will have to fund the recycling centres that will loose money from the loss of recycling of plastics and tin cans in there centre’s disgrace and a waste of time and money

[@fiverZ]

90% of single use drinks containers have to be recycled by 2029 by EU law, this is proven to be the only effective way to achieve figures like that. It works already all over Europe.

[@outdooradventuresireland1903]

Plus it’s unnecessary driving to return bottles as can’t always do it on the shopping day.

[@fiverZ]

You have two legs that allow you to walk too you know...

[@ipfreely679]

​@@fiverZ, Clearly you have no clue, 12k to the nearest one to me, so you suggest I chuck a bag over my shoulder, walk 24k, instead of just using my recycling bin, you're a genius lad,keep it, now gfys

[@fiverZ]

@@ipfreely679 12 thousand what?

[@readesiun988]

@@fiverZ Not everyone lives in a city close to the shops

[@fiverZ]

@@readesiun988 I don't live in a city either

[@MaryCawley-o9x]

Money racket. I put my empty cans at the bottle banks containers

[@fiverZ]

How is it a money racket if you literally get your money back? You choosing to throw your money away is your problem and not a fault of the system.

[@michaelahern6821]

​@@fiverZHDF do you get your money back when the machines don't work...I went to 3 different places this week not one of them worked...

[@leoh2502]

In Finland, we've pretty much always had separate bins for bottles and cans. It's normal and it makes sense.

[@VectorMonz]

Keeping recyclables separated should decrease the costs overall, but a proper system isn't at play yet. In theory the new Return system should reduce the amount of plastic and metal collected from the blue bins; which should mostly hold cardboard/paper now. This may reduce the cost of sorting; which could make the recycling efficiency go up. They need to implement something more robust, to the benefit of the taxpayer. Ideally there should be giant sorted bins in every town, but even that has drawbacks.

[@shanecanavan6717]

Had 13 bottles and the machine only took 3 .. what a fecking scam!

[@gallowglass2630]

ifits not broken it needs to be broken

[@fiverZ]

But the problem is that it was broken because most people don't know how to recycle properly and we're contaminating the recycling material. This prevents that.

[@punchy1325]

20 to 25 euro every 6 to 8 weeks for all my rubbish and recycling but keep using them bins and paying service charges 😂😂😂

[@chriser555]

Kieran, always late to the party

[@eoincollins1883]

Have a look at who owns the machines?I'm just guessing here but there is probably some friend of a politician somewhere gaining from this initiative, cronyism is never far away

[@fiverZ]

Well considering the stores bought them, they own them.

[@trishloughman5998]

It's Ireland, so guaranteed there is someone on the fiddle.

[@Steve30x]

It's news to me that they won't take those items in the bin.

[@jerryfields4837]

how come its always "brian from dublin"? txts in?? listen in future, newstalk always have "brian from dublin"txts in...aside...its a nonscience idea, cost shopkeepers huge money that they will never get back, all because ryan got a photo op in the sunday times 3 years ago..in her sandels..in dalkey...where she lives..wherever that is?? 31 other counties anyone?? sooner the better the greens have gone "out to grass"...thats another 1 liner only 31 other counties would understand

[@fiverZ]

The stores that take returned bottles and cans are literally paid for every item they take back. What are you talking about?

[@Godzilla-t1z]

Cuddihy has never been honest about anything

[@TypeMarioFrenzy]

Bring back the tinker! 👍🏻

[@jovialgent9963]

Don't use them. Simples!

[@annettereddall8982]

I'm sure that's what the government wants then they keep the refund that was due.

[@verali164]

Its the audience that you have when putting in the plastic bottles and cans that i hate, you are only getting back the extra money that was charged . You get 25 cents back on a large bottle of coke .

[@bobbybob2599]

Nothing about what the war machines 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅😅

[@davannagle450]

Welcome to the centre right Kieran, about time you woke up.

[@arafatul86]

This system is running smoothly in many parts of Europe. If you are not doing it right, then learn from others who have already implemented it perfectly.

[@fitzstv8506]

These sort of things always run well in some continental countries because of very conforming populations, in countries such as Ireland, the UK and across Southern Europe the populations tend to be less conformist, a little edgy and less disciplined so initiatives such as this are less welcomed.

[@annettereddall8982]

We have recycling bins at home the system was working great, we pay for our recycling already this system is ridiculous.