How are you finding the bottle return machines now that they've had time to bed in?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I've mostly found that it's an opportunity for Murphy's Law to have a good go at me. Anytime that I forget my bottles the machine is working fine, no queue, usually not even being used and if there are more than one machine then both of them are working. Anytime that I remember my bottles there will be one machine working and one out of order/full. The working machine will have a queue of at least three in front of me. Of the people in front of me at least one person will either a) have a small child going at snail's pace helping or b) have a unbelievably huge number of bottles (yesterday the person in front of me returned over €11 worth of bottles) or c) not have rinsed the bottles, or put the lids on so that there's sticky soda/juice residue everywhere when I get to it.

On the positive side I have refined my technique and sped up to the point that I am positively a blur as I post the bottles into the machine. I have even issued enough threats at home that my DC remember to both put the lid back on and check whether the bottle is returnable and put it into the appropriate place. I now almost always remember to use the money back thingy at the till.

I love how you've ranked your Dunnes @BlackAmericanoNoSugar 😁.

I don't use them.

They can steal my money or my time. I value my time a lot more these days. For people like me who don't drive its hardly practical to lag a black sack full of empty bottles to the nearest machine.

As such, anything with the Return logo on goes in the recycling with everything else. I think its an absolute disgrace to force people to give up either their precious time or money and have absolutely no choice.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar Aldi, thats good to know that they work across different Dunnes'

I am intrigued by the Dunnes with experimental stuff!

Is this like when I go to the flagship Lidl and they have it all laid out differently (rarely special things though)?

Well they haven't managed it with public transport so I'd say yes it is ;-)

@RecycleMePlease oh my god a flagship Lidl. Do you just wonder about for hours ? Our Dunnes was one of the first to be properly fancied up and it's actually like a nice department store now. Every type of notiony food is now available and I love the plant shop I can't actually send DH there as a weekly shop there if he did it would be a mortgage payment.

I like the scheme. It's fun chucking the bottles in and there's more space in the recycling bin at home.

They have stuff that you can't get in other Dunnes, often it's there for two or three months and then disappears so I assume that it was a test product that didn't sell well. I still mourn the lactose-free Philadelphia, now I eat regular cream cheese and fart. About a decade ago they had a whole range of Waitrose branded products, including an excellent hoi sin rib sauce, there for about three months and never seen again.

I wonder if you're in Limerick as I contemplated doing a click and collect at Dunnes last night when I was in Limerick and there was three in close proximity

No, not Limerick. I think sometimes Dunnes will make their stores closer together than they need to be in order to block other supermarket chains. For instance from the door of little Dunnes to the vehicle entrance to big Dunnes is 395.5m (I measured it on Google maps). According to my brother, Lidl were considering purchasing a site near little Dunnes before little Dunnes existed which Dunnes didn't want because it would be competition for big Dunnes. So they bought a pub and turned it into little Dunnes so that they could then object to planning permission for the Lidl on the basis that there was already adequate supermarket provision. Medium Dunnes is about 4km away from both big and little Dunnes, but they are all about equidistant from where I live.

Did the medium Dunnes used to be a pub too 🤪😜

You could be right, at one stage there were 3 Dunnes in local big town. Now there are two, two Tesco, two Aldi, two Lidl, SuperValu didn't open a second outlet

I never remember to take the bottles and cans with me, so I leave it to DH.

Bf can't be bothered because he's already recycling responsibly as was I. I don't want the government to get any more of my hard earned money though so I do use return machine.

However I take mine to civic amenity site so I'm interested to see if I've to visit less often. I also put the bottles straight into boot and keep the receipts in my purse until I'm at that store again. Bf has taken to gathering his for my dc to return, they're delighted with the extra few cent and ds is saving the money for his holidays.

I wish you could redeem voucher anywhere although I understand why not.

I think I have jinxed DH. He went to medium Dunnes this morning and one (of two) machines was working, there was a queue of three in front of him, one of whom had both a giant bag of bottles and a child who looked ready to help. He brought the bottles home again.

Medium Dunnes was purpose built @Livelaughlurgy because turning a pub into a supermarket is clearly a ridiculous idea. Medium Dunnes is part of a little shopping centre, with shops, offices and, weirdly, quite a large care home.

Our medium Dunnes used to be a pub and so did the little Dunnes 😂😂😂 our big Dunnes is gorgeous, James Whelan, Baxter and Greene, Nourish- the works, it was an awful shock to the system after growing up here that it wasn't the norm. There's another medium Dunnes in the industrial estate but i don't know why I never think of it.

I'm pretty sure that we have the same big and little Dunnes @Livelaughlurgy. I've just looked up your medium pub Dunnes and it's so long since I've driven down that particular road that I didn't even know it had stopped being a pub.

I also hardly ever go to the industrial estate medium Dunnes because the underground car park gives me the heebie-jeebies. Plus the store layout is so illogical that I end up doubling back all the time to find things.

I think you're probably showing your age when you remember drinking in both those pubs 😂

I'm not sure that the little Dunnes was ever my sort of pub, it always looked a bit grubby from the outside.

What's the parking like in that medium Dunnes? I had a look from above on Google maps and it doesn't seem like a lot of spaces for the size of the shop.

I've figured out where you are talking about @BlackAmericanoNoSugar and @Livelaughlurgy !!!

No it's so an absolute pain in the tits.

Machines are NEVER working, there's two hopes I'm washing any cans and bottles !

Since this scam came into place, there's been many things arranged to try get all the thousands of people who can't drink from their taps but the government don't care. So these people still have to buy bottled water. But that's ok because once the majority can no one gives a fuck ! Imagine in 2024 you are like a 3rd world Country not being able to drink water from your tap !

They still haven't introduced anything for the disabled, machine holes are too high for wheelchair users. Wheelchair users still don't have a way to get their bottles and cans to the stores with the machines, it's tough shit if you don't have anyone to return them for you, but that's ok because the majority of people are able bodied. No one gives a crap about people with needs, Ableism is alive and well in Ireland !

All this was introduced to stop dick heads leaving their bottles and cans at the side of the road or too lazy to shove it in the bin while out walking, yeah it's wonderful now the paths and parks and roads have no bottles, but look at the thousands that are affected by this ! This Country only cares about itself, no one thinks of others and how things may not be working out for them.

I vented enough on here about my disabled sister and how she struggled, it just wasn't possible for me to keep going weekly and returning her cans and bottles, I've been involved in different community groups trying to get someone to return her stuff, people want paying, or they got fed up. I got a pain in my face listening to people saying Germany is fucking wonderful it works there it does this it does that, Germany, Germany Germany !! But what people don't realise is it's a completely different set up, the disabled aren't ignored and there's a system in place to work for everyone ours was done half arsed.

So anyway my sister has an arrangement with some local lads to her, rather than her loose out completely she gives the lads black bags of bottles and cans they go through it, once it's 10.00 euro plus they take it, give her 5 euro and they use it for their drinking and smokes money at the weekend. This way she's not losing out completely and getting something and the lads are getting free drinking weekends and no bottle or can goes unclaimed. I might even suggest this across social media .😂😂😂😂😂😂

The Greens don't listen.
Nor the quango the NTA.
Feckers.
They are putting bus lanes on a narrow road near my mother's house. The traffic will be insane and it just doesn't make sense.
But Eamon and his mates don't care.

Similar to above. Not the worst idea in theory, at best half-arsed in practice. I'm able bodied and live in a city centre so can return bottles as ease, although it annoys me that I have nowhere to store them in a tiny flat which already has perfectly good recycling bins. No one has thought about disabled people, those who live rurally or for any reason might not be physically able to go to the shops. The bottle holes in the machines are eye-height so wheelchair users can't reach. I'd prefer to have the money back as actual money rather than a store voucher. (Do they give it to you as money if you want?). I can see the point of the new bottle lids but they are also annoying. No joined-up thinking re drinks bought in hospitality environments. You'll be charged the deposit on your can of tonic in the pub but are you going to carry it around all night and bring it home? I've also seen a person dismantling a city centre bin for a few bottles and leaving the rest of the rubbish on the ground; that is obviously a different issue but it makes me wonder what might happen in suburban areas with green bins in front yards. The system is a start but needs fine tuning to work well.

What gets me is that Eamon Ryan has a disabled child but never seems to consider disabled people with all of his schemes. I would also suspect that Eamons wife is the one who has to navigate things like the bottle/can recycling because Eamons too busy being driven around in his ministerial car

It's like punishing the whole class because one person wouldn't own up to a misdemeanour in primary school.
Most people were using their recycling bin.
But that wasn't good enough.
Oh no !
So they set up an expensive quango to run the scheme and retailers had to introduce expensive recycling machines ( that don't work half the time in my experience).
Smaller retailers couldn't afford those machines.
The nearest machine to me is at Aldi and I have to use the voucher given in Aldi.
Even if the bottles / cans weren't bought in Aldi.