Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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122. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will provide an update on the first month of the operation of the deposit return scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11189/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) launched as planned on the 1^st February last and has been in operation for just over a month. Both the Department and Re-turn, the DRS operator, are monitoring the scheme closely and I receive regular updates on its performance.

To date:

- 199 producers have registered with Re-turn. These producers have registered 5,900 products with the DRS scheme.

- 5,623 retailers have registered with Re-turn representing 9,798 individual retail premises.

- There are currently 2,418 retail return points across the country. The vast majority of retailers (2,202) are using automated collection via Reverse Vending Machines while 216 retailers have opted for a manual, over-the-counter collection system.

- To date 3.9 million empty containers have been returned by customers. Of this, 1.8 million (46%) are plastic bottles and 2.1 million (54%) are cans.

- €683,270 has been refunded to customers.

- The national DRS awareness campaign remains ongoing.