Lidl Ireland has welcomed the success of its bottle and can deposit return scheme at the retailers Glenageary branch.
The scheme, which was launched 11 weeks ago, is an Irish-first aimed at engaging customers in recycling plastic and aluminium waste.
According to Lidl Ireland, its reverse vending machine has collected more than 64,000 plastic bottles and aluminium cans from customers and paid out more than €6,400 in vouchers to date.
The retailer has said the trial at its Glenageary branch has been successful in collecting double what is being collected by some of the retailer’s European counterparts.
For every unit deposited in the vending machine, customers receive a €0.10 voucher in return with a maximum voucher limit of €2.
The particular machine used by Lidl Ireland can collect and process up to 17,000 units a week.
Speaking about the scheme, CEO of Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, J.P. Scally said the company is overwhelmed by customer's engagement with the scheme.
“Sustainability is at the core of our business, and while we were delighted to be first-to-market with this industry-leading approach to a deposit return scheme, we are overwhelmed by the participation from our customers.
“We have already made significant progress against our own targets of an overall plastic reduction of 20 per cent across our own-brand packaging by 2022 by substituting all single use plastic items such as drinking straws, disposable cups, glasses and plates with non-plastic alternatives.
“We have also removed all plastic microbeads from our own-brand cosmetics and household cleaning products.
“By the end of this year we are committed to eliminating all non-recyclable black plastic from our own-brand products.”
It is expected that
