Laois recyclers help Lidl to hit 100-million DRS returns

LAOIS has been named as one of the top counties for Deposit Return Scheme recycling as Lidl Ireland reaches 100 million DRS returns across its 180 stores throughout Ireland.

Since the launch of the DRS scheme in February, Lidl Ireland has processed over 1.5 million bottles and cans at its two stores in Laois and returned more than €260,000 in deposits to Laois customers.

This year to date, Lidl’s Portlaoise store has processed more than 790, 000 units, with the Portarlington outlet following closely behind with over 700,000.

With two reverse vending machines at every Lidl store in Ireland, the retailer has invested more than €50 million in installing and upgrading its machines to meet the high processing demand.

Lidl Ireland CEO Robert Ryan said: “We’re delighted to lead the retail sector in contributing significantly to Ireland’s sustainability targets and to reach the 100 million containers returned milestone after just seven months of the scheme being live.

“At the outset of the scheme launching, we planned to process around 3.6 million units a week across 180 stores, but this has been surpassed by up to 25% in some weeks. 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,” said Mr Ryan.