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.

  • Spzi@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    If there are readily available biodegradable options right there, why on earth wouldn’t you use them?

    Because that’s still trash. From the teaser above:

    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.

    Apparently they got sick of disposable coffee cups, so suggesting a cup which biodegrades is not exactly a solution to their problem.

    As a resident of another town, I find filled bins, littered roads and trash in nature really inconvenient. Happy to see it justified.