Re-turn no longer briefing minister on rejection rates amid reports of dumping

Re-turn claims that just three percent of bottles and cans are being rejected by reverse vending machines, despite the minister responsible for the scheme being bombarded with complaints to the contrary.

Some retailers have even begun installing special bins beside machines for rejected containers because so many cans and bottles were being dumped by people who failed to get their deposits back.

And the Irish Mirror has learned that Minister Ossian Smyth is no longer being briefed on rejection rates by Re-turn after this statistic – which was originally referred to as a “key performance indicator” – was quietly dropped from his regular updates from the company.

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Mr Smyth had been advised that less than 40 percent of containers presented at reverse vending machines were being accepted in mid-February, but this had risen to 80 percent at the end of March.

Re-turn CEO Ciaran Foley had told the minister that the reason for some of the rejections was being investigated, and said that the trends would continue to be monitored. He said vending machine suppliers were blaming consumers for getting their “fingers in the way” for “the vast majority” of rejections, as well as “newcomers to the scheme”.

However, records released under the Freedom of Information Act show that data in relation to rejection rates are no longer being provided to Mr Smyth in his regular updates, which include detailed information on transactions, down to the individual stores nationwide with the highest and lowest returns.

Consumers have bombarded the minister with complaints about reverse vending machines failing to accept cans and bottles, with one correspondent attaching photos showing piles of rejected containers dumped on the ground in front of one of the machines. They wrote in their email: “This is every time I visit to recycle.”

While official data provided to Minister Smyth states that four in five containers were being accepted at the end of March, Re-turn has denied that the remaining one in five containers was being rejected. “At no time were one in five in-scope containers rejected by RVMs [reverse vending machines] in Ireland. Claims otherwise are false,” a spokesman told the Irish Mirror.

“The current rejection rate for bottles and cans is approximately three percent, due to the flushing out of non-deposit stock which was facilitated by the four-month transition period of the scheme, which ended on June 1.” Asked why the minister is no longer being provided with data on rejection rates in his regular briefings, the spokesman said: “Minister Smyth is regularly updated and has access to information on the progress of the deposit return scheme.”

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