\u201cWe actually had our highest ever week last week, so momentum is still there,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 33 million containers returned last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as well as that, we’re seeing the impact on litter; there’s been a reduction of over 50% of litter from these containers.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoast Watch tells us the cleanest beaches for 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe constantly get feedback from Tidy Towns about the lack of these containers being littered now.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Deposit-Return-Scheme-edit.jpg\")
A Deposit Return Scheme machine ready for use at a Supervalue supermarket in Dublin. Picture by: Jack Quann\/Newstalk.<\/p>\n
Re-turn is a not for profit company; however, it has accumulated vast cash reserves as many millions of bottles and cans are never recycled using the scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There have been suggestions that the money be used on street cleaning, but Mr Foley explained that it \u201ctakes money to run the scheme\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think we will have available cash of about \u20ac30 million on current projection by the end of 2027,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ambition is to build a recycling plant on the island of Ireland because we currently export all of the material that we collect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with the Minister on that project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Foley noted that the price of plastic is \u201cvolatile\u201d and the existence of the Deposit Return Scheme will \u201cde-risk\u201d any recycling plant in the long-term.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we needed to get to 60% redemption to make it economically viable for anybody to to build a plant on the island,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re well past that now, so we’re in the tender process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business case has gone to the Minister purely based on circularity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re trying to do the right thing for the environment and for Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mian image: A split of a Deposit Return Scheme machine and a beach in Clare. Pictures by: Newstalk and Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Deposit Return Scheme means Ireland now has \u201cthe cleanest beaches for 25 years\u201d, Re-turn has said.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-484854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}