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.
I recently visited Killarney and I thought it was a great system. As a tourist, the €2 was no big deal to have a cup for the whole week. Then I just returned it before I left and got the money back. They do this all over Germany and have branded cups for each town. It would be cool to see it more widely done elsewhere too.
branded cups for each town
€2 is also a pretty cheap souvenir of a trip. my mom would have collected one of each.
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.
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.
Tiny inconveniences in our lives are far less important than the billions of tons of pollution we create every year…
I understand a 100 percent. Most shops here switched to something like recup, but I really like taking 10 minutes to drink from a decent cup. And, of course, italians always had al banco, where you drink a quick caffe` (espresso) while standing at the bar
what a great idea. i would like to see this in my own home town. so much waste could be avoided…
A town I used to live in ve in got rid of all public waste bins and made steep fines for littering. Was super frustrating for the first year but I think was an excellent idea. Forced residents and tourists to be more thoughtful about waste. Carry in carry out in parks etc. The biggest surprise was that it really noticeably cut down on mosquito and bee pests throughout the town. The US really needs to take more actions like this. The amount of waste in public areas is astonishing compared to the vast majority of other countries I’ve been to. Tell your local representatives about these ideas.
That’s an interesting idea. I can see local businesses having a whinge about it for a couple reasons: 1) people less likely to buy snacks/drinks on the go and 2) the business now has to deal with lots of extra rubbish that used to go in the public bins outside. Was there any push back? People were a bit whingey about the plastic bag ban here at first but I think most people have accepted it now (although I do forget my reusable bags on an annoyingly regular basis).
Nothing too vocal that I recall. Was a pretty progressive town. I’m sore about the plastic bag thing though. I reused all those bags for house trash or lunches and had to switch to purchasing separate single purpose bags for those things.
Looks like a good idea
