A really good idea.
Monaghan will be home to Ireland's first ever "reverse vending machine," a machine that will pay people in exchange for their plastic bottles.
The machine will open to the public at Market Square Shopping Centre in Monaghan on Monday, and will give customers a 10c voucher in return for depositing a plastic bottle. The voucher can then be redeemed at the SuperValu inside the shopping centre.
The Carrickmacross Tidy Towns committee, who are behind the initiative, got the idea from Germany, where the system has been in place since 2003. In that case, the voucher works as a refund for a 10c flat tax on each plastic bottle.
There are 80,000 such machines in operation worldwide, but this is Ireland's first.
The initiative has been assisted by Irish companies, Shabra Plastic and Quinn Packaging. Funding has also been provided by the Monaghan County Council.
Shabra and Quinn will work together to process and recycle the plastic that is put into the machine.
In a statement today, Carrickmacross Tidy Towns said: "We are very excited to launch the 1st Plastic Bottle Reverse Vending Machine in Ireland, today in Carrickmacross. Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys will officially launch the Project this afternoon."
