Representatives of the retail sector and the drinks industry have welcomed new regulations that will introduce a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles and aluminium cans next year.

Eamon Ryan (Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, pictured) signed the legislative regulations for the scheme, which is aimed at reducing single-use plastics, last week.

The system will encourage consumers to return their empty drinks containers for recycling or re-use.

The Separate Collection (Deposit Return Scheme) Regulations, Statutory Instrument No. 599 provides the framework within which the minister can approve a body to operate the scheme, which will be funded by the drinks industry.

‘Important milestone’

The regulations also set out the obligations on producers, retailers and return-point operators.

The minister will now engage with interested parties to fix the rate of the deposit to be paid on the bottles and cans covered by the scheme, which is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2022.

Welcoming the move, IBEC’s Irish Beverage Council said that it would continue to engage with the department to seek “the clarity industry needs to make the initiative a success”.

Arnold Dillon (director of Retail Ireland) described the publication of the regulations as “an important milestone”, but added that there was still a lot of work to do.

"Clarity is still required on issues relating to planning permission and VAT. Crucially, we need to ensure there is a realistic implementation timeline,” he said.