OPINION: The Deposit Return Scheme has failed but here's how the Govt can save it

We usually start small-talk conversations with the weather in Ireland; it's too warm, too cold, going to change, not going to change, Status Yellow, Status Orange, blah, blah, blah. There's very rarely a conversation had in Ireland without mention of the weather, but now it has a rival in the Deposit Return Scheme. 

Introduced in February, the Deposit Return Scheme places an extra charge of either 15c or 25c on plastic bottles and aluminium cans bought in most stores in Ireland. You get a voucher for that money back, but you only receive that once you've brought those emptied cans and bottles - in perfect condition - to one of the 2,300 machines around the country. 

I was standing in a checkout queue in my local Lidl the other day and the machine is inside, just off to the right of the tills. As I waited for others to unload their trolleys of post-Bank Holiday shopping onto the belt, my eye was drawn to another queue at the Deposit Return Machine. One poor lady popped the same can into the machine five times and each time it was spat back at her like it was some sort of cruel gameshow. Maybe it didn't have the logo, I thought, or wasn't in perfect condition, but either way, I just felt so sorry for the woman who had two kids with her. 

She looked under pressure with two other people now behind her in a queue to use the machine. They stood, two-tapping, half-smiling, trying to look like this wasn't all a big inconvenience. I couldn't blame any of them for being annoyed. The people in the queue just wanted to get their chance to play Return Scheme roulette and get their little golden ticket, and the woman at the head of the queue just wanted the machine to swallow her as well as her cans and bottles. She probably put her cans and bottles into her recycling bin at home up until February and yet here she was being punished by a Government scheme aimed at increasing recycling and targeting illegal dumping. 

I have so far refused to engage with this scheme because I recycle every can and bottle that comes through my house in my recycling bin, a service I pay for to the tune of maybe €30 a month. I'm aware, and many people have reminded me in conversation, that I'm effectively giving away money by continuing to buy cans and bottles, but not returning them to the machines. I'm being taxed, and that's the way I see it; I see no benefit to the scheme other than an imposition on the vast majority of people who already recycle their waste.

I'm not alone either; a recent survey showed less than 20% of people have even tried using one of the 2,300 machines, let alone successfully. In the first 40 days of the scheme, Re-turn took back almost seven million containers – 3.4 million plastic bottles and 3.6 million cans. That sounds like loads, I hear you saying, but that left around 193 million containers either awaiting return or already disposed of. That's a lot of people in my boat.

This scheme is primarily aimed at cutting down on illegal dumping but I remain to be convinced that it will make a major difference. An individual with such little regard for the environment or the public space in general and is willing to fling black bags of rubbish onto a roadside are no more likely to stop that practice now as they were before the scheme. 'Oh, but we're offering them 15c,' again, people with this attitude will not be motivated by such returns. Bad people will always be bad people, and good people like our woman in the shop, will always be punished for the actions of bad people. 

Tackle illegal dumping with aggressive prosecutions before creating a stealth tax on already compliant members of the public. That's my two cents on it and I'm not going to change my mind now. That said, I can see merit in a return scheme, just not one that penalises already hard-pressed families out doing their shopping with extra charges. Why don't the Government keep the 15c and 25c return scheme but not the charge? Hear me out...

Yes, I'm suggesting the Government put a levy on the drinks companies for creating cans and bottles if they're so bad and stump up some cash from the public coffers to fund a return scheme. If people see the money they get as an extra and not just their own money back, they might be more inclined to engage. Better yet, push it at schools, sports and community clubs. You wouldn't be long seeing clubs setting up schemes to round up every can and bottle in the parish to put through these machines for cold hard cash. Imagine, thousands of Euro flowing into community groups, clubs and schools for them to spend on new jerseys, events, facilities. 

The mechanics of something like this are already there. Clubs and groups run fundraisers all the time so they're good organisers and the machines and everything else around the scheme are already in place. Just drop the tax on consumers in store and put your money where your mouth is if you're serious about it. The scheme would flourish; kids would still learn about the value of recycling and see how making a sustainable change can benefit their community. Does it get more win-win than that?

After loading up my car boot with shopping the other day, I returned my trolley and spotted the poor beleaguered woman from the machine heading back across the carpark with her bag of cans and bottles still in tow. Will she ever go back?