Republic of Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) Reaches 2.5 Billion Item Milestone

The Fed has welcomed the news that the 2.5 billionth item has been recycled by the Irish DRS scheme since its launch in February 2024. However, the Fed continues to push to ensure that DRS remains cost-neutral for small independent retailers who have been central to the success of the scheme in its first two years. Meanwhile, the Fed continues to call for lessons to be learned with the UK DRS project, branded “Exchange for Change” which is due to commence in October 2027.

The announcement was made by Re-turn, the administrator of Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), which also indicated that use of DRS has grown in the past year, as more return points have been installed, particularly by small independent shops like Fed members in Ireland– in 2025, 1.4 billion cans and bottles were returned compared to 874 million returns in 2024 between its launch in February and the end of the year.

According to Re-Turn, since February 2024 “…the overall recycling rate for in-scope containers has risen from just 49% to an estimated rate of over 90%, with approximately 76% of containers captured directly through the DRS and the remaining amount collected via mixed dry recycling.”

The Fed’s President in Ireland, Martin Mulligan, a retailer based in Athlone in County Westmeath, commented: “This is seemingly very positive news and it is obviously good hear that recycling is apparently increasing, helping reduce waste and litter. However, the Fed in Ireland continues to call on Re-Turn and the Irish Government to put small shops at the heart of the agenda on DRS, ensuring that it is cost-neutral for retailers, taking action to uprate the retail handling fee in line with inflation in due course.”