Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.
The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.
Not any more. Three months ago, Killarney became the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups. If you want a takeaway coffee from a cafe or hotel, you must bring your own cup or pay a €2 deposit for a reusable cup that is returned when the cup is given back.
Very good system. We all need to get into the habit of bringing our own bottles/cups and reusable bags when we’re out and about.
…as used to be common in the past.
Hindsight is 20/20
and now it is 20/23
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That honestly seems like a hassle. Long trips and stuff I understand, but if I’m just hanging with my friends with nothing on me I don’t want to carry a bag just to put a cup in it.
The deposit system they’re using in that town seems much better to me, as long as that’s an option I’m on board.
The deposit system would be great to see for take away/ delivery food as well. Here in Germany we have it for coffee cups and bottles/ cans you buy from the supermarket. Works great and is really easy to adapt to, just the garbage from Take away food is still a pain in the ass.
Yeah, it would be pretty cool, especially since recycling isn’t even an option for Pizza boxes.
Although I can imagine that a reusable pizza box is actually worse in terms of CO2. Production and cleaning might be worse over the projected lifetime than the current system.
it’s a return to tradition. few hundred years ago you’d have your sword and your tankard on your belt as part of your daily carry
Tiny inconveniences in our lives are far less important than the billions of tons of pollution we create every year…
Sure, but the deposit system doesn’t create pollution either and is also a much smaller inconvenience.
I have a collapsible coffee cup made of silicone, works pretty well and barely takes any space at all in my bag.