Plastic Bottle Recycling Scheme Another Climate Cop Out

On 1st February, Ireland is to introduce a new recycling scheme aimed at increasing the amount of plastic bottles and drinks cans that we recycle. The Deposit Return Scheme will see shoppers taxed a small fee that they can then recoup once the bottle is put into a recycling machine in a local shop.

This might sound like a good idea – and early indications from newspaper polls suggest that the majority of Irish people support the idea – but, in reality, it is yet another missed opportunity to effect real change that will benefit the Climate Emergency.

So, there we have the answer. We’re doing this not because it is the right, most ethical, most climate-conscious approach, but because our government has failed to act on recycling rates in the same way that it has failed on every single climate target.

In reality, 71% of all the plastic waste generated in Ireland ends up being burned. That’s just under 220,000 tonnes of plastic being burnt, emitting incredibly harmful chemicals and toxins that worsen public health while also worsening the Climate Crisis.

Furthermore, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency has previously warned that the country is ‘overly reliant’ on exporting waste, with almost 382,000 tonnes of waste sent abroad for incineration in 2021 alone.

We have contacted several governmental departments to ask how they plan to avoid exporting more plastic waste if the Deposit Return Scheme is a success, and how they can justify the creation of avoidable emissions from sending waste abroad.

More Consumption, More Oil

In reality, the Deposit Return Scheme does nothing to reduce plastic consumption or waste.

While it may, hopefully, have a small impact on increasing the amount of recycling, it won’t fundamentally change the fact that more than 1.9 billion drinks bottles and cans that are consumed each year in Ireland

The vast majority – if not all of them – are made from virgin plastic. That’s to say, plastic that hasn’t been recycled. Or, in other words: oil.

New oil is pumped out of the ground on a daily basis to create the 25,000 tonnes of plastic bottles that Irish people consume annually. Failing to reduce demand and consumption for these containers means that we are perpetuating every problem that comes with them: from plastic and microplastic pollution, to avoidable greenhouse gas emissions and even oil spills.

Their promotion of glass over plastic has dramatically lowered waste, emissions and energy consumption. Glass bottles can be reused up to 50 times without losing quality.

Through reuse of glass and plastic bottles, Germany’s consumption of virgin PET plastic is 70% lower than it was before the reuse system came in.

Mr Foley might see it as “good news for Ireland” that we’re not doing more to reuse and recycle our glass bottles, but in every possible sense this attitude exposes the widespread failures of current systems in Ireland.

Reuse is vastly superior in every way, as it reduces consumption of raw/virgin materials, leaving them in the ground. It also reduces the amount of energy required to melt down and re-manufacture materials during recycling, and thereby also reduces emissions.

Ireland has missed a golden opportunity to promote reuse over recycling – and to place the onus for change on the wealthiest and largest polluters.

For more on this topic, we highly recommend the Twitter thread created by IrishCycle.com Editor Cian Ginty, which covers the intricate relationship between Big Oil and recycling, as well as how recycling has allowed people to disengage from the impact of their consumption.

When we asked Mr Ginty about the impetus behind his thread, he said: "I started the thread because I hope the best thing from the new scheme is a realisation that recycling isn't the end game. We need to be focusing far more on reducing and reusing. But I fear in a few years when people are asked to reduce their waste it better ways, they might think of the deposit return scheme as somewhat like the mistake the Greens made previously of pushing people towards switching to diesel cars."  

Taking action on the Climate Crisis is the same as taking action on plastic waste: it is as much about changing small behaviours as it is whole systems. Stop buying a plastic bottle when you have a reusable one in the cupboard. Stop buying so much plastic full stop. Start telling supermarkets that you don’t want so much plastic.

We hope that the Scheme will be beneficial overall, but so many important questions have remained unanswered, and in the world of ever-increasing culture wars the lack of communication about the Deposit Return Scheme has already led to the rise of myths about who is profiting from the system or price gouging.

Again, Mr Ginty has a helpful Twitter thread on this that we would recommend.

Yes, you should keep recycling, but be in no doubt that the Deposit Return Scheme is little more than a box-ticking exercise that is allowing the Irish Government to avoid scrutiny for their wider climate action failures for just a little while longer.

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