The Department of Environment, Climate, and Communications has released new data that supports this. This amounts to the refund of €110 million in consumer deposits. Seventy-three percent of all containers put on the market in August were collected.

In early February of this year, the Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and cans was introduced.

During that first month, only two million vessels, or 2% of the total, were returned for collection. After seven months, there were 56 times as many containers returned each month.

Up to 112 million drink containers were sold in August, which accounted for 73% of total sales during that month. This indicates that clients received their deposits back in August to the tune of €19 million.

Ireland is on course to meet its EU collection objective of 77% by the end of 2025 and the higher target of 90% by 2029, given the rate of public participation with the system.

The first four months were considered the scheme's settling-in period.

A total of 153 million drink containers were returned over that period. In the first three months following the conclusion of that settling-in period, the total returned was double that amount.

Nowadays, average monthly rates frequently surpass 100 million bottles and cans, or almost €18 million in returned deposits.