Lidl Ireland has become the first retailer to hit 100 million Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) returns, with the retailer processing almost a fifth of Ireland’s total DRS bottle and can recycling through its 180 stores across the country.
Since the official launch of the Irish government’s DRS scheme on 1 February 2024, Lidl has processed 100 million eligible bottles and cans and returned more than €17 million in deposits to customers.
According to latest statistics, customers are recycling on average around 24 bottles and cans per visit at Lidl stores and redeeming an average of over €4.20 in deposit payouts each time.
Processing Volumes
"At the outset of the scheme launching, we planned to process around 3.6 million units per week across 180 stores, but this has been surpassed by up to 25% in some weeks," said Robert Ryan, CEO at Lidl Ireland. "We’re certainly punching above our weight in terms of processing volumes, and we have recently invested further in upgrading our reverse vending machines in every store to meet high customer demand."
With two Reverse Vending Machines (RVMs) available at every Lidl store in Ireland, the retailer has invested more than €50 million to date in installing and recently upgrading its machines to meet high processing demand.
Lidl customers in Churchfield, County Cork are the biggest recyclers, with more than 1.8 million units returned to date, whilst Dubliners in Tyrrelstown and Finglas complete the top three, with 1.2 million and 1.1 million units returned respectively since the scheme launched.
Circular Economy
Lidl first trialled a DRS back in 2021 at stores in Glenageary, Dublin and Claremorris, Mayo.
Over the trial period, Lidl Ireland collected 2 million bottles and cans and voluntarily paid out more than €200,000 in money-back vouchers to customers which were redeemable in all Lidl Ireland stores.
As part of the trial, Lidl Ireland also collaborated with its suppliers to utilise the recycled PET bottle material in the packaging of its products, as another circular economy initiative.
Working with one supplier, Silver Hill, up to 30% of the total tray weight of the retailer’s own brand Silver Hill duck product was made from bottles collected from the retailer’s DRS machines.
