Getting a daily caffeine hit could be about to become a more expensive. Coffee drinkers in Ireland are to be hit with a levy designed to restrict the use of disposable coffee cups.
Dubbed the ‘latte levy’, it encourages customers to bring their own reusable cups to coffee shops rather than using single-use disposable ones. It also sets the wheels in motion for a new, more wide-reaching law permitting local councils to use CCTV to detect and deter illegal dumping and littering.
An estimated four million cups end up in bins, rivers and next to roadsides every week in Ireland. But the Government hopes that by introducing an environmental levy of 20c on every disposable cup, that figure can be significantly reduced.
Ireland has an impressive track record of reducing single-use waste. About 20 years ago, it was the first country to impose a plastic bag levy. Continuing on from that success, it wants to reduce the number of all food and product packaging, not just coffee cups, reports the BBC.
As Ossian Smyth, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform explained: ‘If we find out that there is a good reusable alternative [to disposable packaging] we can put a small levy on [it]and encourage consumers to change’.
