OPINION: Extra bin charges as 'reward' for supporting Deposit Return Scheme a disgrace

You couldn't make it up. The much heralded Deposit Return Scheme which costs you money every time you do the shopping is now going to cost you even more. I know, I know - you get the deposit you pay in the shop back, but only after you've traipsed to the shop in the hope the machine is working, and there is no queue. 

Introduced in February, the Deposit Return Scheme places an extra charge of either 15c or 25c on plastic bottles and cans bought in most stores in Ireland. You get a voucher for that money back which you only receive once you've brought those emptied cans and bottles - in perfect condition - to one of the 2,300 machines around the country. 

I laughed reading the national papers the other morning when I read the news that waste companies are now considering increasing their charges because they're losing out thanks to the Deposit Return Scheme. I laughed in the same way you do when you pour yourself some cereal in the morning only to discover the milk too lumpy to leave the carton. 

'If you didn't laugh, you'd cry', isn't that the old saying?

While many, including myself, bemoaned the scheme at the beginning, it seems too many of us are now onboard and the poor waste companies are losing out in their profits. The cans and bottles we used to put in our recycling bins at home are worth a small fortune in the recycling market - they are the crème de la crème. Waste companies can get around €1,000 per tonne for cans and around €500 per tonne for bottles after we've disposed of them.

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I have just recently started engaging with the Deposit Return Scheme. I was persuaded by my wife and mother-in-law. 'You're just giving that money away every time if you don't bring them back.' My mother-in-law in particular winced every time I squashed a drinks can and lobbed it into the recycling bin as normal. I believed, and I still do, that the levy inflicted upon us at the tills should be redirected to the big drinks companies until they change their packaging - if cans and bottles are so bad. 

Yes, I'm suggesting the Government put a levy on the drinks companies and stump up some cash from the public coffers to fund a return scheme. I can see merit in a scheme like this, just not one that penalises already hard-pressed families out doing their shopping with extra charges. Why don't the Government keep the 15c and 25c return scheme but not the charge? Hear me out...if people see the money they get as an extra and not just their own money back, they might be more inclined to engage. Schools, sports clubs, charities could all benefit.

And what about the waste companies? If a Government scheme has impacted their operations, they should take it up with them. Why on earth in this country is the default response always to pass the buck onto ordinary people? There's a day coming soon where you'll be paying an extra few Euro for a bin that you're putting less stuff in; the same bin you'll have to walk past on your way to a frustrating machine at the shop to get your own money back.

If you didn't laugh, lads!

The word is used all too frequently in Ireland, but it's a disgrace.