— By Andru Shively — 

Readers of Tolkien know all about long, unexpected journeys – in his titular tale, Hobbit Bilbo Baggins travelled more than 3,000 km roundtrip by one reckoning. But that pales in comparison with the nearly 16,100-km trek that two plastic bottles made from Ireland to Asia and back in the company of one air traveller determined to save something more precious than all of Middle Earth: half a euro.

The bottles, purchased at retailers in Dublin Airport, each carried a EUR 0.25 deposit under Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

As the buyer soon learned, however, the airport lacks any reverse vending machines. Instead, there are a grand total of three manual return points, located in shops, where one must queue up again to reclaim a deposit.

This led the annoyed passenger to write to the minister behind the DRS about his ordeal, local media report. He asserted that without convenient return points the bottles instead end up in bins, going so far as to ask if the deposit therefore should be viewed as “an effective tax”.

Related: Public support grows for Irish DRS

He has a point – and we commend his taking action, remembering the wisdom of Gandalf, who said that “it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay”.