Evaluating Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme: Policy, Behaviour, and Response

This study analyses the early implementation of Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) through the lens of Edgar Morin’s complex thinking. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, it explores the economic, behavioural, and environmental impacts of the DRS in its first ten months, drawing on survey data, official statistics, stakeholder feedback, and media discourse. The find-ings reveal a nuanced landscape: while return rates have increased, significant tensions persist around cost perception, infra-structural access, and public frustration. Particularly among rural consumers and small retailers, the scheme is viewed as bur-densome and intrusive. Using a complexity-informed analytical framework, the study demonstrates that the DRS functions not as a linear intervention but as a dynamic governance system characterised by feedback loops and emergent effects. The research contributes to political science by highlighting how environmental policy interacts with legitimacy, freedom, and behavioural adaptation in real-world settings. It also provides a critique of top-down regulatory models and calls for more adaptive, citi-zen-centred approaches. This case illustrates the political dimensions of sustainability policy and underscores the value of com-plexity theory in analysing contested governance processes. Future research is recommended to assess long-term impacts, de-mographic variations, and comparative lessons from other European contexts. Subject Areas Environmental Policy and Governance, Political Science / Public Policy, Complexity Theory in Social Sciences, Behavioural Economics, Sustainability Studies