UCC to go plastic-free in 2023

Initiative will save more than 140,000 plastic bottles and 370,000 coffee cups per year.

The move to plastic-free will save 560,000 plastic bottles and 1.4m coffee cups during a graduate’s four-year degree, UCC said.

University College Cork (UCC) is to go plastic-free from the start of the new year, saving more than 140,000 plastic bottles and 370,000 coffee cups per year.

UCC is bidding to improve its sustainability credentials with the new initiative which will, from January 2, see single-use plastics eliminated in campus shops and vending machines, as well as cafes, restaurants, and other eateries.

Under the plan, the university will use 34 water refill stations across campus, while a deposit and return scheme will be available at all KSG food service outlets for students, staff, and guests for €2 reusable cup.

Other innovations include installing 12 mini dishwashers across the campus, along with crockery mugs in all outlets, it said.

UCC said that 1,500 reusable cups were handed out to students and staff in November, while it will sell a variety of keep-cups and water bottles at various price points.

It will save 560,000 plastic bottles and 1.4m coffee cups during a graduate’s four-year degree, UCC said.

Move welcomed

Students broadly welcomed the initiative, its union said.

"Single-use plastics are a significant source of environmental pollution. This has been recognised by UCC Students' Union for a number of years, and in 2018 we launched a petition to make UCC a single-use-plastic-free campus by 2023 which reached over 8,000 signatures," said UCC Students’ Union President, Asha Woodhouse.

She added that the multi-layered collaboration will "once again position UCC as a leader nationally and internationally in sustainability".

UCC president Prof John O'Halloran said: “We cannot continue to overconsume plastic in the name of convenience. In the areas of research and action towards the transition to a more sustainable society, UCC will continue to lead and hopefully inspire action.”

The university's sustainability officer, Dr Maria Kirrane, pointed to the execrable rate of plastic recycling throughout the world as a motivation for the move.

"By reducing single-use plastics on campus, we reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill. While we can make efforts to increase our recycling rates, recent studies have determined that only about 14% of all plastic is recycled. In 2019, UCC generated 817 tonnes of waste, over half of which was recyclable i.e., paper and plastic waste," she said.

UCC, which has more than 20,000 students and 3,000 staff, has been lauded internationally for its sustainability commitments, being crowned the top university for sustainability at this year’s UK and Ireland Green Gown awards.

It banned disposable coffee cups from its library as part of the Green Library campaign in 2017, while the following year, it launched Ireland’s first single-use plastic-free cafe, the same year the student petition to go plastic-free exceeded 8,000 names.