- 22,000 coffee cups are disposed of in Ireland every hour, that is 528,000 every day or 200 million a year.
- Single use coffee cups are not on Recycling List Ireland and cannot be put in the Recycling Bin.
Up to 200 million single use coffee cups are thrown away every year in Ireland, and cannot be disposed of in recycling bins.
That is the message from Recycling List Ireland*, as it encourages coffee and tea lovers to reduce their use of disposable cups, and consider using a ceramic or reusable coffee cup instead.
While many disposable cups carry the recyclable logo, the actual cup is not currently recyclable in Ireland and must be disposed of in general waste. The logo refers only to the rigid plastic lids and the cardboard sleeves on some cups, which can be removed and placed for recycling.
Waste Prevention Officer with the Southern Region Waste Management Office and Recycling List Ireland’s Pauline McDonogh said, “As disposable cups are made largely from paper many people believe they can be recycled, but unfortunately this is not the case. These cup are lined with plastic polyethylene which is fused to the paper making the cups waterproof but also difficult to recycle.
“Of course single use cups are also contaminated by the drink they contained, which is yet another reason why they cannot be added to the bin of clean and dry recyclables.”
“As many as six single use coffee cups are disposed of every second in Ireland, which results in a lot of non-recycable waste in the form of 528,000 single use cups every day. Right now the only way to combat this waste is to reduce our dependency on these single use coffee cups,” explained Ms McDonogh.
“Recycling list Ireland is not suggesting however that anyone goes without their regular cuppa, but we are appealing to consumers to consider using the ceramic cup in their favourite cafe or bring along a re-useable cup for their take away. Once the reusable cup has been used more than 15 times, it is more sustainable than a disposable cup.”
“It is worth noting that more than 1,000 cafés in Ireland are now giving a discount to consumers with a reusable cup so long term a reusable cup can make environmental and economical sense. Participating cafés are geo-tagged on www.consciouscup.ie,” she added.