Plastic bottles return

Here in Ireland just last year the government introduced a plastic bottle return places these are vending machines that take your plastic bottles and cans then give your the money back you paid in tax when buying them. this is my grand daughter using the machines for bottles we save and gave her this money she puts into a piggybank then when shes got enough saved she buys a phone tablet ect ect. every week she can make around 50 euros from the bottles people save for her;
My grand daughter Ryleigh aged 8 using the machine

this is the amount she got at this visit

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I like that Feey. I’ve yet to see one in our neck of the woods!

Most of the plastic bottles in my area are collected every 14 days and then sent to a recycling plant that turns them into garment fibre and other useful products. one thing I will say about my area, I never see any discarded bottles just dumped in the gutter or on the pavement.

From February 1st 2024, Ireland will introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and aluminium cans. The Irish Government has appointed Re-turn to operate the new scheme, which is a key element of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
When you buy a drink in a plastic bottle or can that feature the Re-turn logo, you pay a small deposit in addition to the price of the drink. When you return your empty, undamaged container to a Re-turn participating retailer, you get your deposit back in full. DRS is a crucial step in the journey to a circular economy, where bottles and cans can be returned, recycled and become a new product again.

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The Scottish government were going to introduce a bottle return system in 2023 but it keeps being delayed. The latest date is sometime in 2027. Our local Aldi has a bottle return facility in the car park which has been unused for 2 years.
Why has Scotland’s deposit return scheme been delayed? - BBC News

A very enterprising young lady, Feey. Good for her.

Here we have a bag to put plastic, tins & foil in, it gets collected every week, with other recycling, card, paper & glass. Those go in 2 other boxes. Non recycling goes in a black bin.

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Our machines give you a voucher you use at Woolies supermarket unless you open an account. If you go to the Unanderra place where they deal with bigger loads they transfer cash into your debit card (not a credit card for some reason)

None give you cash.

There are still people who check the recycle bins for bottles and cans on bin day

Yeah, I can’t see it working here. The junkies and illegals would be making a right mess everywhere on bin day.

the machines here are in local supermarkets like lidl dunnes and tesco you place the bottle on like a conveyor belt it then scans the code as the bottle goes in thats how it recognises the amount to give back. you can then do your shopping and give in the receipt and they deduct it from your shopping bill. because of my grand daughters age they just give her the amount in cash from the till,.

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Which means you save your bottles in a convenient place at home and take them to the supermarket as and when.
Sounds a plan! :+1:

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Do you get more money or less money if you return the empty plastic bottle without its stupid cap that won’t come off, that gets in the way when pouring and is sometimes impossible to get back on the screw top?

regardless of the cap on or off opened or closed it scans the barcode and gives you back the amount you had to when buying the bottle. i agree the stupid way they have the caps opening nowadays is hard to close them again properly.