{"id":459680,"date":"2026-05-25T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/459680\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T21:19:07","slug":"minister-questions-re-turns-plan-to-use-e60m-of-unredeemed-deposits-to-build-plastic-recycling-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/459680\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister questions Re-turn’s plan to use \u20ac60m of unredeemed deposits to build plastic recycling plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The minister responsible for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) has raised a number of questions regarding Re-turn\u2019s plans to use \u20ac60 million of its proceeds to build a plastic recycling facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that Alan Dillon queried whether the plan would be permissible under competition law, and whether it may affect Re-turn\u2019s not-for-profit status.<\/p>\n

He also raised the prospect of returning \u201csome of the \u20ac60 million\u201d to the State\u2019s circular economy fund \u2014 likely referring to the \u20ac66.7 million in unredeemed deposits retained by Re-turn in 2024.<\/p>\n

Internal emails refer to a number of \u201coutstanding questions\u201d raised by Mr Dillon in relation to Re-turn\u2019s plan to build a bottle-to-bottle plastic recycling facility in Ireland.<\/p>\n

They included concerns over whether the use of \u20ac60 million in proceeds from the DRS to build a recycling plant might contravene State aid rules, which restrict anti-competitive behaviour by national governments.<\/p>\n

He also asked the operator of the scheme about the State\u2019s role in the proposed recycling plant, and whether the development of the facility would be permissible under existing legislation.<\/p>\n

Despite these concerns, the CEO of Re-turn was informed in correspondence from a department official at the end of last year that the minister was satisfied that the potential opportunity should be explored further.<\/p>\n

However, they reminded the CEO that Mr Dillon\u2019s consent would be required before any final commitments. He also sought an independent analysis of possible ownership or operating models for the development.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment confirmed that Re-turn had expressed an ambition to develop Ireland\u2019s first recycling plant for PET bottles using unredeemed deposits.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this end, the company has conducted an expressions-of-interest process to establish possible parameters for such a development. The company has briefed the minister and the department on its plans,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department is currently evaluating the various public policy issues that arise from the proposal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company currently exports up to 90% of PET plastic collected through the scheme due to the absence of a bottle-to-bottle facility in Ireland that can process the material needed to produce new drink containers.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2024, Re-turn had \u20ac66.7 million in unredeemed deposits \u2014 money paid on bottles and cans by consumers who never brought the empties back to dedicated collection points.<\/p>\n

A further \u20ac55 million in unredeemed deposits had been racked up by the end of September last year, according to official figures.<\/p>\n

In an email to a department official ahead of a meeting with Re-turn last November, Mr Dillon\u2019s special advisor asked that \u201cthe potential to return some of the \u20ac60 million to the circular economy fund\u201d be added to his briefing note.<\/p>\n

There is no record of a response from the company on this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The minister responsible for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) has raised a number of questions regarding Re-turn\u2019s plans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[214201,242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-459680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-sustainability-business","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}