MOST PEOPLE IN Ireland would support a ban on single-use disposable coffee cups, a poll has indicated.
In response to the question Would you support a ban on single-use disposable coffee cups? 56% of people replied that they would.
Around 1,800 Irish adults were asked as part of the Amarách Research poll, carried out for TheJournal.ie/RTE’s Claire Byrne Live.
There’s been much debate around what should be done to reduce our waste in Ireland and encourage more people to recycle. Among the suggestions have been the Green Party’s 10c rebate for each bottle and can that’s recycled, and a government plan to ban coffee cups that can’t be recycled.
Most coffee cups cannot be recycled because of a plastic film around the middle of the cup that retains heat. It’s understood that one of Ireland’s biggest coffee chains, Insomnia uses 15 million cups each year and is carrying out research into biodegradable cups.
Minister for Communication, Climate Action and the Environment Denis Naughten said that he was “gravely concerned” about Ireland’s plastic waste pollution.
As a society we discard an incredible 80% of what we produce after a single use. It gravely concerns me that two million disposable coffee cups a day are going to our landfills.
Meanwhile, other coffee shops are encouraging customers to bring in their own flasks or “keep-sake” coffee cups to cut down on the total number of disposable cups – biodegradable or otherwise. Customers who do this are rewarded with a discount on their coffee, promotional points, or an extra stamp on their loyalty cards.
Owner and manager of the small coffee chain Coffeeangel, Karl Purdy said previously that many in the coffee industry want to get behind environment friendly alternatives, but want to make sure that it’s practical and that they get the “tedious technical stuff” right.
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