Over 100m bottles and cans returned under new scheme

The 100 million returns mark was met last weekend.

An average of 2.37 million drinks containers are being returned each day under the Re-turn deposit scheme.

The number of bottles and cans being returned each day shows the acceptance and effectiveness of the scheme, the company overseeing the machines has said.

More containers are being returned each day in May than were returned in all of February — the first month the scheme was in place.

The scheme was initially plagued by complaints from consumers who were charged deposits when they should not have been or had issues with the machines recognising returns or being 'out of order'.

Re-turn said that teething issues such as these were to be expected as the scheme rolled out but these have largely been addressed.

"We are seeing really good support from Irish consumers with continued growth in numbers participating and returning drinks containers each week," said Re-turn ceo Ciaran Foely.

"The inaugural months of a Deposit Return Scheme is all about gradual improvement, and that's exactly what we're achieving."

Last Sunday marked the most successful day of the scheme so far with over 3m drinks containers returned, pushing it over the 100m mark since February 1.

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The total returns have been growing each month since its launch and this is expected to continue in the coming months, especially since more drinks are generally sold during the summer.

In April, there were 50m containers returned. In the first two weeks of May, over 30m have been successfully returned.

Non-logo and non-deposit drink containers are still being phased out by retailers and this will continue until May 31 when the transition period ends.

From June 1, all drink containers included in the scheme will feature the Re-turn logo and barcode.