Two million take away coffee cups are thrown away in Ireland every day.
This figure is dwarved by UK numbers and almost pales into insignificance
besides the 25 billion cups thrown away each year in the US.
What happens to them? Well, most go to landfill. They are mainly styrofoam
which stays around in landfills for up to 500 years.
How depressing is that?
Most waste in Ireland goes to landfill and incineration. Landfill sites are
reducing – only six now – whilst large incinerators are being built in Dublin
and Cork. The green bin recycling scheme manages to reduce this waste by
about 30 percent.
New rules mean that coffee cups cannot be put in the green bin, neither can
plastic film nor take away food containers which have been “contaminated by
food” There are no recycling facilities for these in Ireland. Look at
Repak is an Irish company which is funded mainly by large Irish
supermarkets and packaging firms. They enable the bottle banks and help
the green bin schemes. By doing this they are exempt from EU rules which
otherwise would allow customers to leave waste with those supermarkets.
They trumpet their involvement with recycling but at the same time are
allowed to put single use plastics onto the market which are not recyclable.
Most plastics have been taken to China in the past. They have said they will
take no more in 2018.
Here at Bridge St. Co-op we have been thinking of ways in which we can make a
difference. During 2017 we introduced coffee cups made from bagasse,
waste sugar cane, lined with starch. We are disappointed that these
compostable cups (which cost three times the price of styrofoam) will
probably go to incineration. Our take away boxes are recycled card lined
with starch. Of course, contaminated with food they will go to incineration
In an effort to challenge this orthodoxy we at Bridge St. Co-op will be
introducing changes during 2018.
As yet our plans are not exactly formulated but will include the following:-
Most commodities are already sold from bulk by weight. We will be increasing the
number of products sold this way. We already use both paper and cellophane
(plant based and compostable) bags and will discontinue use of plastic bags.
We already offer washing up liquid, laundry liquid and fabric softener from
bulk into your own containers. We also have earth friendly shampoos and
conditioners. There are substantial savings to be made here. We will look to
bringing in more products to sell this way.
We will stop selling water in plastic bottles. In fact we intend to install a
reverse osmosis filter system to remove the chlorine in the town water
supply and supply water free into your container.
If you want a take-away from the café, we will give you a discount for
bringing your own container. This will also apply to take-away coffee’s and
Recycling is only good if there exists a facility to actually do this. Cutting this
waste is a much better option.
We have other idea’s too and maybe you have. Let us know.