Follow bag ban with disposable cup ban

Efforts to remove waste plastics from our environment, especially our seas, continue to gather pace — as do international efforts to reduce usage.

New Zealand has just announced that retailers have six months to stop using lightweight plastic bags or face fines of over €55,000. That seems a meaningful sanction and is a multiple of the petty-cash fines imposed on Irish waste companies convicted of illegal dumping. One range of sanctions infers real commitment, the other, ours, unfortunately, ineffective tokenism.

It is time, even at this late stage, that our courts imposed sanctions — they are available to them — that would end illegal dumping. It is unfortunate to have to argue that our courts, through the harmless sanctions they impose, do not reflect the growing concern around environmental offences and the impact they have on our future.

The clean-up-the-plastics efforts continue next month, when German volunteers will try to remove “ghost gear” — the deadly detritus of the commercial fishing industry — from waters off Galway. This lost gear represents a permanent hazard to marine life and even if its removal is more symbolic than comprehensive, it is a very welcome exercise.

Ireland was one of the first countries to ban plastic bags, but that was a long time ago. It’s time to reactivate that idealism, by banning disposable, but non-recyclable cups. Protests would be short-term; the benefits would be long-term.