Household recycling standard equal to deposit return scheme, says waste management body

The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) has expressed disappointment with recent comments made by Re-turn CEO Ciaran Foley, who claimed that containers collected through household recycling bins are "downcycled" and of lower quality than those processed through a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

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Plastic bottles and cans are recycled in the same way regardless of whether they are placed in your home bin or in a reverse vending machine. In both instances, bottles are recycled into bottles and cans are recycled into cans.

The IWMA, representing waste management companies, asserts that plastic bottles and cans are recycled to an equal standard whether they are placed in household bins or processed through a reverse vending machine. "Plastic bottles and cans are recycled in the same way regardless of whether they are placed in your home bin or in a reverse vending machine," an IWMA spokesman stated. "In both instances, bottles are recycled into bottles and cans are recycled into cans."

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We want to reassure our customers and the general public that if they wish to save themselves a trip to their reverse vending machine, by placing plastic bottles or cans in their home recycling bin, they will be properly recycled.

The association aims to reassure the public that items placed in home recycling bins will be "properly recycled." This statement comes after Foley told RTÉ Radio 1 that materials from mixed dry recycling do not achieve the necessary quality for closed-loop recycling, such as bottle-to-bottle or can-to-can processes. He suggested that achieving 95% recyclate quality, essential for full circularity, is not possible with mixed recycling, unlike the 98% quality achieved through the DRS.

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In order to go fully circular and to go bottle-to-bottle, you have to achieve a 95% quality of recyclate. If you put it in your mixed dry recycling, we’re not getting anywhere near that. It still gets recycled, but it gets downcycled.

The IWMA disputes this, arguing that PET plastic and aluminum from household waste are recycled similarly, and sometimes in the same facilities, as DRS materials. They contend that while PET plastic may be initially baled with other plastics from household bins, a secondary sorting process separates it for bottle-to-bottle recycling. The IWMA contacted RTÉ to present its perspective after Foley's interview.

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If you keep it separate and put it through the machine, you’re actually achieving a 98% quality, it obviously gives the fully circularity, bottle-to-bottle recycling. I think a lot of people maybe don’t realise that.