Refilling plastic bottles is better than using the new deposit return scheme machines, Green Party Minister Ossian Smyth has said.
The scheme – which began on February 1st 2024 – causes most plastic bottles and cans to have an additional charge added to them upon purchase, which can then be refunded to the customer if the empty item is returned and recycled at one of the designated machines around the country.
Speaking during an Oireachtas committee meeting on the environment today, Green Party Minister of State for the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth, said the scheme was needed because “not enough of our bottles and cans are being recycled.”
“By adding a value to them, it becomes much harder to walk past a bottle or a can on the ground because they are money,” he said.
“I went to the supermarket and did my own first large-scale recycling after keeping a couple of bags in the kitchen. Along the way, I picked up three cans. That was on a short walk. The whole mindset around this type of waste, which relates to single-use drinks containers, is going to change and is changing.”
Smyth also said the volume of bottles and cans being recycled was “increasingly significantly all the time”, going from 500,000 items a few weeks ago, to 2 million items on Monday alone.
However, the controversial new policy has led some to voice frustrations, with many reports of local machines being out of order when individuals attempt to utilise them around the country.
Speaking during the same meeting, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said that the public’s “frustrations” with the scheme were coming up on doorsteps when canvassing.
“People are very frustrated, because they arrive back to the shop with their bags full of bottles, having perhaps travelled on the bus rather than in a car, and the machine is broken when they are also meant to pick up shopping,” he said, adding: “It is understandably frustrating.”
Murphy also said that the scheme fails to deal with “the fundamental issue”, which he said is that “we need to stop single-use plastics”.
“To shred the bottles and turn them back into bottles requires the use of a great deal of energy involving carbon emissions that could be used for something socially useful,” he said.
“The issue is that we need to get away from single-use plastics.”
Minister Smyth said he “substantially agreed” with this point.
“Reuse is better than recycling,” he said.
“If we can persuade people to refill plastic bottles with water, that is better than persuading them to bring back the bottles in the first place.
“For example, the sports clubs, GAA clubs and football clubs informed me that they could have reverse vending machines. They could, but even better than that would be that they encourage children to refill their bottles every day when they are at the club rather than bringing a pallet-full of plastic bottles individually for each person.”
During the same discussion, Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan said that he “welcomed” the scheme, adding that some people were against the idea from the start and had hoped it would fail.
“People seemed to be queuing up to knock it, just wishing and hoping it would not be a success, and many seemed far too overjoyed by the initial teething problems,” he said.
“Its success has been great to see, though. My understanding is that the success rate when segregating recyclables in this way is much higher.”
However, he acknowledged that the scheme “is not without its issues”.
“I am not looking for praise, but I wish to give an example of what can happen,” he said.
“I filled my first bag with plastic bottles and a few cans and eagerly brought it to the supermarket. I was excited about using the scheme for the first time, only to arrive at the machine and for it to tell me it was out of printing paper. I had to pause my first use of the scheme.”
The TD said it was “frustrating”, but that when he finally got to use the machine he was “overjoyed”.
“It was a bit frustrating, but I was not going to take to X like others had done. I was successful on my second go and got €2 off the cost of my shopping,” he said.
“I was overjoyed. There was a sense of success.”
I don’t need working or conveniently located machines, I need an opt-out clause. I pay for a freakin recycling bin, everything goes into that. How many times do they want to dip into my wallet?!
They will put you hand into your wallet until your dead.
And then, they will still take a slice of the action.
Great comment, concise.
i brought everything up to recycling, now what am i being charged?
Filthy sticky closets – come a hot summer and the hornets will have a field day on the unsuspecting.
The old ‘money back on bottle’ was way better and one hundred times more safe!!
No thanks, I’d rather not be stung to death.
Cabbagehead idea – he’s the opposite to Midas – these yokes will follow the electronic voting machines.
A lot of disabled people and pensioners get their groceries and bottled water delivered. It already costs for the delivery, but now, they are also expected to pay an extra €3.oo for their bottled water, and they cannot get a refund on the bottles from the delivery man. Both of those sections of our society, the most vulnerable, are paying this unjust tax. It is up to the able-bodied to fight this for them!!!!
Agreed, will they discount their plastic tax when the water supply from the taps are unsafe ??
This government has no regard for the people they serve.
They serve themselves and do well out of it at our expense.
The reason he was able to pick up 3 can on what he describes as a short walk is because many people do not care about the additional fee and still throw away their empties without recycling.
If people cared it would not have been possible for him to pick up 3 empties on the ground on such a short walk as he describes it.
He has unknowingly admitted that the deposit return scheme is failing.
It was designed to fail. This deposit was always designed to be a tax.
They’re probably all repurposed e-voting machines anyway.
I think not robbing people with a disguised communist tax is better myself and if they really gave a shit, they would target the source which is the manufacturers but that would affect their bosses profits.Also I find it funny how ford developed a car called the 420 and it was shut down. It was made of hemp and was 10 times stronger than steel and also ran on hemp too, the rockerfellers were not one bit happy with it. They were also not happy with morlay who followed tesla with free electricity from the ether. Yet the green party here and in the eu are fixated on things that are not one bit green or cheap or free which shows them up for the communist scum they are. Also interesting that their angle is to shut intelligent people up so the stupid wont get offended. This doc tells you the truth about climate change. https://www.bitchute.com/video/f1K9ahuSfSJ7/
Ossian is what they call a “watermelon”:
Green on the outside, red on the inside.
I personally think he will regret the energy he put into saving the world and not spending it raising his son.
I dont think he will tbh, he is too narcissistic. Sociopaths usually are. His son is already fucked because of his indoctrination. He has never admitted any fault or responsibility in anything, i doubt he is any different at home. https://www.bitchute.com/video/dYdr9DIDbtiB/
Yes, you hit the nail on the head !
I never thought of him as a sociopath, gave him too much credit.
Makes more sense when you think of him as a sociopath.
They all are in the political parties. You would need to be to screw the population of a country.
Neighbours who regularly do a “wine run” to Newry are now buying their bottled water there too.
Those carbon emissions help to grow trees and crops. I consider that to be socially useful.
Talk about the Nanny State, when will they start checking if you’ve washed behind your ears before you go out of your house. It’s all distraction, keep you looking one way while they get on with destroying our country demographically, culturally and morally. Worst most duplicitous government in the history of the state.