Consumers returned around 210m plastic cans and bottles at SuperValu and Centra stores in the first year of the Deposit Return Scheme, equivalent to 42 containers for every citizen in Ireland.
A total of 702 reverse vending machines have been installed at 560 SuperValu and Centra stores in the Republic of Ireland.
Stores in Dublin, Cork, Meath, Galway and Kildare received the largest volume of returns to reverse vending machines across the SuperValu and Centra store network.
“We are pleased that as a community retailer with the largest offering of Reverse Vending Machines across every county in Ireland that SuperValu and Centra have enabled the equivalent of every citizen in Ireland being able to make a positive recycling impact," said Luke Hanlon, managing director of SuperValu and Centra.
"Over the course of the last 12 months, a remarkable 210m containers have been returned via our RVM machines which has led to a reduction in litter locally and enabled Ireland’s transition to a circular economy.
"This milestone is a testament to our customers who have made recycling containers a natural part of their grocery shopping routine – they see the benefits to them and the planet and have been supportive of the initiative.”
Under the Deposit Return Scheme PET bottles can be recycled up to seven times and aluminium cans have no recycling limit.
The containers are collected from SuperValu and Centra stores at the end of each week and brought to a recycling facility in Limerick. They are then sorted by material and colour, while any waste that enters the system is removed.
SuperValu and Centra invested €28m in reverse vending machines across their store networks nationwide, as part of their continued focus to build more sustainable communities.
According to SuperValu and Centra, consumer behaviour indicates strong adoption of the scheme with Saturdays being the busiest period for recycling in SuperValu stores due to customers doing their ‘big shop’, with consumers bringing higher volume of returns at once, averaging 23 containers per visit.
Centra customers tend to recycle a smaller number of containers but make more regular trips to stores to return containers.
Regional Breakdown of Containers returned to SuperValu and Centra stores:
| County | Containers returned |
| Dublin | 43,540,756 |
| Cork | 30,504,145 |
| Meath | 11,923,174 |
| Galway | 10,371,981 |
| Kildare | 8,954,412 |
| Limerick | 8,857,348 |
| Wexford | 8,835,355 |
| Kerry | 8,716,061 |
| Wicklow | 6,614,853 |
| Tipperary | 6,386,213 |
| Laois | 5,769,932 |
| Waterford | 5,594,878 |
| Donegal | 5,173,455 |
| Louth | 4,964,300 |
| Mayo | 4,725,815 |
| Kilkenny | 4,541,176 |
| Roscommon | 4,497,323 |
| Clare | 3,774,619 |
| Cavan | 4,396,137 |
| Sligo | 4,350,572 |
| Carlow | 3,414,087 |
| Westmeath | 3,204,411 |
| Monaghan | 2,804,729 |
| Longford | 2,752,640 |
| Offaly | 2,170,219 |
| Leitrim | 1,324,322 |
Photo: General manager Glenn Leacy and Susan Leahy at Collins' SuperValu Carrigaline. (Pic: Diane Cusack)
