Supervalu and Centra stores in Galway have announced over six million returns in Galway since the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme in February. Nationwide there have been 125 million returns to Supervalu and Centra stores since its introduction.
The introduction of 43 Reverse Vending Machines in Centra and Supervalu stores across Galway has made public engagement surge, with more than 91 million containers returned since June alone nationwide. There was a return rate of over 95% for this period, meaning relative to containers being sold 95% were returned.
During the initial launch of the scheme in February, SuperValu and Centra invested €28 million in Reverse Vending Machines across their store networks nationwide. Stores in Dublin, Cork, Meath, Galway, and Kildare have seen the highest volume of returns within the SuperValu and Centra store network.
686 Reverse Vending Machines were introduced in 549 Supervalu and Centra stores across the 26 counties, the largest deployment by any retailer. On average weekends are the busiest time for returning containers with people recycling 24 containers on average at a time.
“As a result of offering the largest number of Reverse Vending Machines in convenient locations across every county in Ireland, we are delighted to see such a high level of interaction from our customers in Galway with the Deposit Return Scheme in our stores. This is a testament to our loyal customers embracing the scheme which benefits not only them, but also the wider environment. Our data indicates that since June over 95% of eligible cans and bottles we sell have been returned through our RVM machines nationwide. This is a significant increase in the average nationwide recycle rate for these items, which was estimated at 60%–70% before the scheme’s introduction,” said Luke Hanlon, Managing Director of SuperValu and Centra.
