Bottle return scheme ‘just another tax’?

A Cork County Councillor who is also a shop owner has described the new Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and cans as being “confusing” and “only half thought out”.

Fine Gael Cllr Noel McCarthy who runs a small business in Fermoy said his shop isn’t big enough for the reverse vending machines rolled out to bigger shops as part of the scheme.

The scheme, which came into effect on 1 February, sees customers charged an extra refundable deposit on certain drink containers with a special logo. The deposit is between 15 and 25 cents depending on the size of the container. Customers can return containers to shops that have a reverse vending machine or accept the containers manually. Some shops have a take back exemption as they are not able to accept the containers back for the scheme.

Speaking at Monday’s County Council meeting, Cllr McCarthy said smaller businesses will lose out to the bigger stores as more customers change their shopping patterns in order to avail of the scheme.

“So, we actually are hunting custom back to the bigger shops, and then that brings the problem that when the customers are coming in and the barcodes are not on half the cans or the bottles, they’re confused as well,” continued Cllr McCarthy.

“We were all saying it was going to be a good scheme, but it was only half thought out. Everything should have been up and running properly and then introduced.

“One customer said to me, ‘it’s just another tax’, and it’s driving people mad on the ground and I really feel it should be looked at again because it isn’t working,” he added.

Social Democrats Cllr Christopher Heinhold said: “I think there’s a key failure in communication from the people running the scheme, like the fact that we think that the little logo is what matters when it’s the barcodes that matter - simple things like that.”

A number of councillors also raised concerns around litter as there have been a number of cases of bottle and cans being left behind when they are not accepted by machines.