Richard Jacob: Whatever happened to the latté levy?

Ireland passed a law and issued some press releases, but unlike France, never bothered actually banning single-use coffee cups in most restaurants, writes Richard Jacob

Each year, Ireland dumps 200 million single-use cups, that could be replaced by reusable cups in the morning.

In July 2022, the Circular Economy Bill became law, with the Government saying “among its targets is to make Ireland one of the first countries in the world to eliminate the use of disposable coffee cups”. This was to be achieved by a levy placed on single use cups, increasing over time.

Since then, nothing has happened.

Each year, Ireland dumps 200 million single-use cups, that could be replaced by reusable cups in the morning. Some might say, well, the impact of data centres, cheap flights and fast fashion is much worse, and they have a point. But we are still throwing away 200 million cups a year.

So why, when this is truly one of the low-hanging fruits of reducing our carbon emissions, has nothing happened?

France faced the identical challenge, but instead of issuing press releases, it acted.

In 2022, while we were enacting laws to gather dust, France banned all single-use cups, plates and tableware in every restaurant with more than 20 seats. When you go to any major fast food chain in France today, your food and drink is served in a reusable container. 

Meanwhile, in Ireland, the circular economy bill received 2,371 responses to its consultation process, many from large lobby groups. Like so many great ideas, it drowned in a sea of complications. 

Lobbyists produced studies “proving” that manufacturing a paper cup, shipping it across the world, using it once, before shipping it to another country for incineration, actually “presents significant environmental advantages, compared to multiple-use”. I kid you not.

Rather than being French and saying “get your house in order, this law is coming”, Ireland quietly shelved the idea.

This is a trend in Ireland. Our politicians always seem to take the route of avoiding taking any decisions that might prove unpopular, even as the planet burns.

Our bogs are still being mined and peat is still being exported and EU fines and legal actions are impending.

Our rivers are still being polluted with agricultural run-off until the EU tires of granting us derogations from the laws that apply to all other countries.

Richard Jacob: 'Why are we still using single use cups on an ever increasing basis, when it is such an easy win to bin them?' Picture: Eddie O'Hare

We are going to hopelessly miss the legally binding climate action commitments we signed up to, because achieving them would have involved standing up to industrial lobbyists. EU fines of €26bn annually are impending.

But again, we must ask, why are we still using single use cups on an ever increasing basis, when it is such an easy win to bin them? If you opened a food business in Ireland in the last four years, you knew, or should have known, that a law exists that aims to phase out single-use cups. 

If you opened a business whose model relies entirely on single-use cups and packaging, with this law in place, you were taking a calculated gamble. If you had a pre-existing business that has always used disposable cups, you have had four years to find an alternative and these alternatives are plentiful.

Yes, there are other measures we can take that will reduce our emissions more, such as reducing our red meat intake. The Environmental Protection Agency posted a single online post in 2023, encouraging people to consider “meat free Mondays”. 

Outcry from the Irish Farmer's Association forced it to delete the post. So, yes, we are back to those 200 million cups.

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Let me give you one example of how we have normalised a throwaway society, without even noticing.

Cork airport has cafes in the airside area, after security and before you board your plane. These cafes serve all their coffee in takeaway cups, unless you know and specifically ask for a real cup. You cannot take this coffee back through security, you cannot take it onto the plane, you cannot take it anywhere and yet it is served in a takeaway cup. 

The last memory of Ireland a tourist takes with them is of tables covered in pointless rubbish, beneath signs promising “Cork airport leads the way with innovative sustainability initiatives”. And, “We commit to achieving net zero emissions by 2050”.

The airport management assures me the cafe operators “have experience in removing single use cups… and we are looking to kickstart discussions”. We have reached the stage where waste is so baked into our lifestyle it seems complicated to stop it, but it isn’t. 

The airport cafes just needs stop buying single use cups and use the real cups on top of the coffee machine instead.

While we wait for our Government to implement a levy that will finally put us on track with our European neighbours, let’s have a coffee, in a real cup, sitting with other people, talking, laughing and remembering how cafés once were.

• Richard Jacob is co-founder of Stylebarn.ie and Idaho.ie