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.
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.
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.