COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, September 10, 2018
QUESTION NO 27
QUESTION: Councillor F. Timmons
To ask the Chief Executive to look, after agreed motions and action taken by SDDC, at following Dublin City Council's move towards banning disposable coffee cups, that SDCC and also set up an internal committee to look at banning non-recyclable cups in SDCC's own buildings, as well as markets and in public parks. To also look at a possible campaign to encourage people to use reusable coffee cups.
Also to ask that this be raised at the Environment SPC.
REPLY:
The issue of disposable/single use plastics has garnered a lot of national and international attention of late. Currently in Ireland this waste stream is not recyclable and conservative estimates suggest we use well in excess of 200 million disposable cups every year.
In efforts to address this issue South Dublin County Council, in conjunction with Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council, as part of our waste prevention programme, have launched a major awareness campaign to tackle the growing environmental issue of disposable coffee cups in the Dublin region. The new campaign, ‘Don’t be Dick’, highlights how careless actions can have serious consequences on the environment, and asks consumers to think about their coffee drinking habits in a new way. The campaign will run across radio, Dublin Bus, cinema, digital and social media over the coming weeks.
In addition to this reusable cup awareness:
- SDCC does not purchase disposable coffee cups - (Café Co Co (Coffee Dock) is a separately managed facility and the current service provider does not supply compostable cups. ‘Keep Cups’ however are something that the service provider is currently examining and hope to introduce in the near future)
- In February the Conscious cup campaign was launched in SDCC, as part of the, Café CoCo is incentivising all customers by offer of a 10c discount when they bring their own reusable cup.
- A SDCC staff reusable cup campaign was launched by Mayor Ward on the 16th August in County Hall and multiple pledges were received.
- Community groups are also being encourage to engage with and promote the reusable cup campaign by taking part in the Councils reusable cups community project. Community groups through the Social credits Scheme can request reusable cups, pledge forms and pops-ups to promote the cups at community events. A number of community groups have already engages with the initiative eg St Cuthberts community day
- EWCC will also continue to work closely with the Conscious Cup Campaign (www.consciouscup.ie), to encourage cafes, coffee shops, garages etc. to become a supporter of the campaign by accepting reusable cups and offering discounts to those choosing not to use disposable cups. In addition SDCC, as part of the Local Authority Prevention Network (LAPN), has made submission to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in relation to the proposed introduction of a levy (15c) on disposable cups.
There is no legislative provision to ban the use of non-recyclable receptacles in the Council's own buildings but in accordance with the EMRWMP there is a requirement on each local authority to reduce their residual waste and meet increased recycling targets.
Details of the Reusable /Recyclable initiatives are continuously provided to the EPR&CC SPC as part of relevant reports on waste management and recycling.