Revealed: Amount of money not reclaimed in Deposit Return Scheme as 5 'key management paid €1.1m
The company behind the Deposit Return Scheme has estimated that as much as €66.7m worth of cans and plastic bottles were not reclaimed by the public last year, writes Darragh McDonagh.
The directors of Deposit Return Scheme Ireland CLG, which trades as Re-turn, also received a 50% pay rise during 2024, with their total remuneration increasing to €600,000, its 2024 accounts show.
The company, which does not reveal how much it pays its CEO, ended the year with a cash pile of €89.8m.
Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly criticised a lack of transparency surrounding the scheme, noting that Re-turn had decided against revealing the salary of CEO Ciarán Foley in the report.
He said “significant” questions remain about the scheme.
Apart from earning revenue from the sale of recyclable materials, Re-turn also retains customers’ deposits where bottles and cans are not returned.
That’s because a shop customer pays a fee on every can or bottle they purchase, which goes to the company.
The shop gives the person a receipt to get money back if they return the can or bottle but many people do not return the can or bottle or do to seek the money return.
The company had €103.2 m in unredeemed deposits on hand at the end of 2024.
However, it estimated that €36.5m of this would be reclaimed after the year end, leaving it with a figure of €66.7m.
The annual report describes Re-turn as a not-for-profit organisation, which operates “with the approval of the Irish government”.
It received a grant of €500,000 in 2023 but was paid nothing by the Government last year.
The firm’s 12 directors shared remuneration of €600,000 in 2024, representing a 50% increase on the €400,000 paid to 11 directors during the previous 12 months.
Five members of “key management” at the company were paid a total of €1.1m, while the total wage bill for Re-turn’s 34 employees was €4m in 2024.
The company spent a total of €4.6m on marketing, communications, and public awareness campaigns; while legal and professional fees amounted to €700,000.
The cost of collecting and recycling plastic bottles and aluminium cans last year was €46.5m, and Re -turn recorded a pre-tax surplus of €51.3m on its activities during the same period.
Mr Daly, who is Sinn Féin environment spokesman, said transparency was “critical” for a scheme that requires “public buy-in and support”.
Referring to the increase in remuneration for the company’s directors, Mr Daly noted that the board had met less frequently last year.
“Any increase in financial benefits on foot of membership must be robustly justified,” he said.
Mr Daly, who was provided with the annual report in response to a parliamentary question, also said it was “scandalous” that 90% of returned bottles and cans are being exported for recycling.
The company noted in its annual report that “there is no local recycling infrastructure in Ireland capable of fully processing and recycling PET plastic bottles and aluminium cans and converting them back into foodgrade drinks containers.”
Instead, this material “is currently sold to reprocessors in Ireland, the UK, Europe and beyond.”
A spokesman for Re-turn said the Irish public had “embraced” the scheme, with over 1.6 billion bottles and cans returned to date and a current return rate of 76% through the scheme, and 91% overall, for containers placed on the market.
He said the €66.7m in unredeemed deposits recorded in 2024 reflects the scheme’s “early phase”, where return habits were “still forming and seasonal patterns have not yet stabilised”.
Tony Keohane, Chair of the Board of Re-turn with Darragh O'Brien TD and Ciaran Foley, CEO of Re-turn. Picture Jason Clarke.
“Unredeemed deposits are expected to significantly decrease as return rates rise,” he added.
On the failure to disclose the salary of the chief executive, he said this is “in accordance with compensation disclosure requirements and data protection.
“However, overall board and executive remuneration is included in the published accounts”.
