Eighty bins in Dublin city centre have been fitted with surrounds where passers-by can leave their drinks container.
The move is designed to stop recyclable cans and bottles being lost to general waste which goes to landfill or incineration while allowing other people to make money from them by reclaiming the deposit.
Dublin City Council acknowledged earlier this year that the deposit return scheme was having the unintended consequence of people rummaging through bins for returnable containers.
Irish Rail became so concerned about people going through bins in Connolly Station that it erected signs warning of the risk of coming into contact with syringes, broken glass and soiled nappies.
As well as being a risk to public health, such searches often left litter scattered over the footpaths and other public areas.
The 80 bins have been provided by the council and Re-turn, which runs the deposit return scheme, and they will be trialled for the next three months.
The ‘Give Take Return’ initiative, is inspired by similar initiatives in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Dublin Lord Mayor James Geoghegan said it was “a step on the journey to a cleaner and safer city”.
“We know that members of the public have been searching through public bins for bottles and cans to return,” he said.
“This is generating more litter on the street and it’s also an unsafe practice for the people involved.
“I’m confident this new scheme will go a long way towards solving those issues.
While there are thousands of deposit return machines at shops around the country, people drinking from cans and bottles on the go often forego the 15c or 25c deposit they pay and dump the container in the nearest bin.
Visitors also find it more convenient to bin their containers as even if they find a shop with a machine, the voucher they get in return must either be used in that shop or they can redeem it for cash.
Re-turn chief executive, Ciaran Foley, said the new bins would boost the number of bottles and cans returned for recycling.
“Successfully capturing on-the-go drink containers and keeping them separate from general waste is critical to the progress of deposit return in Ireland,” he said.
After a sluggish start last February, engagement with the deposit return scheme has grown, hitting 500 million returns in mid-September.
Some 2 billion drinks cans and bottles are sold in Ireland each year, however, so there are still many being left in household bins and street bins or being tossed away as litter.
Ireland recycles about 60pc of plastic drinks bottles but under EU regulations that must reach 90pc by 2029.
Environmentalists say while recycling is a good policy, plastic bottles are made from oil so the best policy is not to buy them at all.
