‘Significant drop’ in number of cans and plastic bottles on streets

The Deposit Return Scheme has led to a “significant drop” in the number of cans and plastic bottles on streets.

So says Pat O’Sullivan, Clondalkin Tidy Towns.

“There has been a significant drop in cans and plastic bottles on the streets,” he said.

“But it’s very difficult to quantify, it’s very hard to say week on week,” he added.

Declan Sheerin, Newcastle Tidy Towns agrees.

“I would agree that it [The Deposit Return Scheme] has made a difference, there are not that many cans on the ground,” said Declan.

The Deposit Return Scheme is a nationwide money-back scheme for plastic drinks bottles and aluminium cans which was rolled out on February 01.

The scheme incentivises people to return used drinks containers so that they can be successfully recycled into new containers, according to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

Under the scheme when you buy a drink in a plastic bottle or aluminium can with the Re-turn logo, you pay a deposit in addition to the price of the drink.

A deposit of 15 cents applies to containers from 150 ml to 500 ml, while a deposit of 25 cents applies to containers between 500 ml and 3 litres.

When you return your empty, undamaged drinks container to any participating retail outlet, you get the deposit back.

However, there are some other disposable pieces of rubbish that are causing problems, according to Declan.

“Coffee cups need to be addressed in the future, to get people to bring a container to a coffee shop, but it’s very hard to get that off the ground,” said Declan.