A disgruntled consumer defecated in a bottle and inserted it into a bottle return machine as part of a dirty protest against the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), according to correspondence received by a government minister.
The news emerged as a similar scheme is still in the pipeline for Northern Ireland. DAERA Minister Andrew Muir confirmed in November that his plans to take forward the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) are still in place and hoped to go live in October 2027.
In the incident in the Republic, it has emerged that an email was sent to Ossian Smyth, the outgoing minister responsible for the scheme, in which a man said he had placed “a large turd” inside a plastic bottle before inserting it into a machine before getting his 25 cent deposit back.
“I just wanted to let you know that I lodged a complaint about the ridiculous deposit return scheme by putting one of my own deposits in a reverse vending machine,” he wrote.
“I put a large turd in a bottle and inserted it into the machine and listened as it squelched inside.”
The man specified that he had used an Innocent juice container with a “wide spout” because earlier attempts with standard bottles had proven “messy and ultimately impossible” “much like it often is trying to return bottles and cans at your machines”, he added.
He claimed that the scheme had “enslaved” citizens to haul “stinking bottles and cans” back to vending machines, but admitted it was “a bit rich” for someone who had “just shat in a bottle” to complain about stinking containers.
The complainant said bin companies had been forced to hike charges after the scheme had taken a valuable source of revenue away from them, and households were now paying the price.
He also questioned the environmental merit of the scheme, claiming that “a whole extra fleet of waste collection trucks” were now on the road to collect and transport bottles and cans.
“And everyone in the country is hopping in their car to bring bags of the bloody things to supermarkets [and] this is just creating a whole lot more pollution,” he wrote, adding again that it was “a bit rich” for someone who “just shat in a bottle” to complain about pollution.
“I realise you can’t undo this mess at this stage, any more than I can uns**t the turd that I put in a bottle. I just hope your successor will move to unwind Re-turn,” he concluded.
The email was sent on November 20 nine days before the general election, in which Mr Smyth lost his seat in the Dail. He will remain a minister of state until a new government is formed.
A series of other complaints, copies of which were obtained by the Irish Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act, raised a number of issues about the scheme, including its alleged discrimination against disabled people, and vending machines rejecting returnable bottles and cans.
A number of complaints were also received regarding the fact that receipts issued by reverse vending machines are not recyclable nor made from recycled paper, as reported by the Irish Mirror in October.
Mr Smyth’s Green Party colleague and fellow minister, Catherine Martin, wrote to him in October on foot of a complaint from a constituent, asking whether there were plans to “move away” from these non-recyclable receipts.