BREAKING: Scrooge arrives early at Kildare supermarket as customer recycling payments slashed by 50%
Scrooge has arrived in Naas before Santa in the run up to Christmas.
Sometimes evil just has its wicked way over good.
Supermarket customers have discovered that payments provided by a machine accepting containers for recycling have been cut by 50% - a multiple of the fearsome current inflation rate.
The reverse vending machine accepts plastic bottles and tin cans at the Dunnes Stores outlet at North Main Street.
Each item was worth 10 cents when the machine was unveiled just nine months ago.
Now it’s been reduced to five cents per item.
The money was paid in the form of vouchers which could only be used at Dunnes Stores and only on that very day.
Its arrival was trumpeted by Green Party senator Vincent P Martin as an incentive for people to recycle plastic bottles and containers. He said it would be the first in Ireland to collect both bottles and cans and would be supplied by a UK manufacturer.
And it was quite the success with a constant queue at the machine.
People often brought several big liners full of containers and oftentimes these bags were ferried in supermarket trolleys to the point of overflowing.
Maybe that was the trouble. Maybe people lining up with bags of bottles at the store entrance wasn’t quite a good fit for “the brand”.
Or maybe the supermarket proprietors grew tired of having to constantly empty the machine.
Or perhaps, as some social media speculation has suggested, this was a decision taken by the machine owner.
Anyway, what it all means is that there’ll a few lighter-than-normal Christmas stockings hanging around Naas fireplaces come the festive season.
Dunnes Stores have been contacted for comment. If recent form is anything to go by, they’ll be keeping schtum.