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A LEVY ON disposable coffee cups is set to be introduced in the coming months, a minister has confirmed.
The necessary legislative basis for the introduction of such a levy will be provided via the Circular Economy Bill 2021.
The General Scheme of the Bill was published in May, and the aim is to seek its enactment as a priority before the end of this year.
Ossian Smyth, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication, said the goal is to then enforce the levy “as early as possible” next year.
“Precise details regarding scope and rate of the levy on disposable coffee cups will then be set out in related secondary legislation, with the intention of bringing the levy into force as early as possible in 2022,” the Green Party TD stated.
Smyth said disposable cups are single-use items “which represent an almost entirely avoidable waste stream”. He made the comments when responding to a parliamentary question submitted by Labour’s Gerald Nash.
The junior minister also noted that his department “does not hold any reliable data regarding the current total number of disposable coffee cups used each year, and so cannot provide the requested estimated yield”.
He added that the introduction of this environmental levy is “not primarily intended as a revenue-raising measure, but rather as a means of incentivising increased use of affordable reusable alternatives to disposable coffee cups”.
The PQ was first reported in the Irish Daily Mail today.
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Why don’t the government tackle the crazy wrapping around fruit and vegetables. The producers should be finding a solution to it rather than the government going the easy way and expecting the consumer to cough up more for the product.
@James Fox: Or both. I’d be good with them tackling both.
@James Fox: nah they’ll put a levy on that packaging soon enough… It’s a money racket nothing else same as the suger tax.
@James Fox: I wish they would. I’ve no problem with buying loose fruit and vegetables. I won’t buy eggs in a plastic box either. But I think there’s a general feeling that a layer of shiny plastic makes fruit look cleaner. Also there’s grouping fruit together – selling six instead of the two a day that people might want to buy.
@James Fox: Tax banana skins and then when no one is looking tax Orange skins
Here come the first of small cash raising taxes to start payback time for the Trillions borrowed during the Pandemic
@Geoff Bateman: or maybe its just to make people think a bit more about the environment. It worked with plastic bags, so it will work here also.
@Geoff Bateman: 100% – another stealth tax
@Geoff Bateman: the levy was flagged before covid
@Levante Dublin: unfortunately stealth taxes are the only way we seem to change many of our bad habits for.
@Paul Furey: don’t think so
@Levante Dublin: don’t buy hot takeaway drinks, simple.
@Paul Furey: ‘yeah – the it worked with plastic bags thing is a bit of a misnomer tho – sure we have less plastic bags blowing around the place but the reality for everyday people is that we pay more everytime we shop for bags – the prices on those bags have crept up – and the usual nonsense of oh we only have the reusable 1 euro bags there which plenty of people stash into the house and never use more than once – not to mention the amount of people i see trying to balance 10 items in their arms into the carparks – convenience shopping indeed – but the mantra it worked with plastic bags is trotted out now for any new initiative to tax for ‘the environment’ – like the corporations flooding the supermarkets with plastic bottles of coke that you of course have to pay the sugar tax on – ignoring the fact these bottles are the biggest problems for decades – but go on – at least it worked with the plastic bags eh.
@#1 Fifthwheel: Why shouldn’t people be able to buy hot drinks? If you had ever waited on a platform on a snowy day for a train or bus, maybe you would appreciate the option.
@Dave Hammond: get one of those reusable bags that fold up really small and keep it in your bag or on your key chain. I have a couple bags like that I always reuse.
Not everywhere will accept the reusable mugs due to health and safety
@Adrienne Lyons: this
@Adrienne Lyons: you’ll find that most will when they lose custom. I can’t think of health and safety problems with reusable cups anyway. Much sturdier than polyestyrene.
@Doreen Murphy: covid
@Doreen Murphy: Because baristas are touching hundreds of potentially unhygienic peoples’ reusable cups constantly all day. You don’t see how that’s a health and safety hazard during a pandemic?
@Tomo: sure the majority have to handle cash anyway so a coffee cup doest make much difference.
@Adrienne Lyons: I think they won’t be given a choice
@NotMyIreland: The people making the coffee shouldn’t be handling cash, or if they’re doing the till and the machine at the same time they should sanitise after handling cash.
@Tomo: So sanitise themselves after using the reusable cups??
@Adrienne Lyons: That’s because of Covid. I take a single-use cup, pour it into my own reusable cup and give it back.
@Tomo: Surely they could fill it without touching it. What if they accepted your cup on a small tray ?
Can the shops not just provide biodegradable cups instead?!
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: ^ this
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: It’s not just about biodegradable, though. I’m lucky enough to live in an area with some lovely routes for walking. I’m also lucky enough to have a Spar and a Centra nearby. Unfortunately this means that a lot of the litter comes with Insomnia and Frank & Earnest logos. There are bins, but apparently there are plenty of people out there who feel that if there isn’t a bin at the exact spot where they finish their last sip then it’s okay to just drop it where it is.
I fully acknowledge it’s not the only problem but it is more practical than rolling out reusable Mars bar wrappers.
@The Other John Madden: If we had a scheme on all forms of packaging whereby you get a percentage back from the price you paid, I’d imagine we would have less litter. I don’t think a levy will solve the litter issue.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: not i’f they are anything like the straws they provide now
@Una Dwyer: The people that claimed that get rid of straws was going to make a difference to the waste issues were delusional at best.
Plastic straws are required by people.
They did not count with the righteous people.
Green = tax. Always will.
@Sean Walsh: rightly so. Nothing is free, including saving our planet.
@Paul Whitehead: “Saving our planet”?
Maybe you could elaborate on that Paul.
Since when did it become “ours”?
Its that narcissistic human attitude that makes the tree hugger agenda a complete nonsense and to be honest embarrassing.
@Gavin Linden: I think you have a case of the twisties there Gavin
@Sean Walsh: Do you want your grandchildren to have a clean planet?
@Gavin Linden: the planet that we live on, is our planet. Not rocket science hon
@sean o’dhubhghaill: i will unfortunately dissolve your pink and faulty vision of bright , clear , green utopian future.
It will never happen as long as there are powerful money hungry corporations that are controlling everything.
I would be happy with the levy if all coffee shops would take reusable coffee mugs, but cause of covid they stopped. You cannot penalise someone for something they have no control over
@Anthony Burrowes: true, but they are coming back around. Admittedly slowly, but they’re coming back.
@Anthony Burrowes: I don’t buy this “covid” excuse, they’ll happily take physical cash so why wouldn’t they take reusable cups
@Kiern Mcx: Maybe cause your lips – and slabber – may be on your cup, and not so much your money.
@Pádraic Ó Braonáin:…… Although money in trouser pockets is awful close to…you know what.
Just another tax alright and more to come . if our politicians had not racked up a debt of over 200 billion before covid even started then it would not be happening..decades of their incompetence is costing us severely..
Oh, I don’t know. It worked out well for plastic bags – I remember when trees were full of shredded old supermarket bags rustling away.
Certainly the companies could do a lot more with their packaging.
First they came for our coffee cups…
Why not give money back to people that bring back/ dispose correctly the cups? E.g 10/20c per cup like they used to do with bottles, that way people that needed the money would collect them from the street/fields to exchange them for cash.
I find it’s quicker to pour mine directly into my own ‘untouchable’ cup and hand it back in the shop. But when people talk about disposable schemes, they usually mean that the items being returned are clean & dry. I’ve done pickups with neighbourhood groups and it goes in a bin TBH.
This govt couldn’t care less about the environment. This is a money grab. Plain and simple, it’s an extra tax.
This could be solved in the morning. Ban paper cups in let’s say 3 months. The two options. A deposit system where you get refunded when you bring back your glass ceramic cup. Or you have to buy the cup outright if you want take away.
Two options that would make a massive difference to the environment and not putting an extra tax on people. If people disagree that this would work. I’ve seen it implemented and people get used to it very quickly.
There was a time when every second shop on main streets were pound shops. Remember the outcry that it lowered the tone. They now have been replaced by coffee outlets. Death and taxes are the only certainty in this life.
There should be a levy on burger joints and take aways to. The amount of rubbish that these generated prior to covid was shocking on a Sunday morning. Every main street in any town was filthy.
@Hugh Mc Donnell: or they could come up with a way to reduce waste without a tax. Ah who am I kidding
@Hugh Mc Donnell: bring back fish & chips wrapped in newspaper!!!
Or maybe we could invest billions into renewable energy sources and public transport infrastructure?
@Tomo: or both
@Tomo: it’s not an or it’s an and.
Disposable coffee cups are a scourge and almost completely unnecessary.
We use tens of thousands of the things every hour in ireland. Most of which end up in landfills (biodegradable or not). They have to be made and shipped half way around the world first.
We need to massively reduce use of disposable items of all types. No way people will change their behaviour without financial incentive.
Not every where will allow you to us your own coffee cup, as I have try a few times and I was told I was not allowed just a other tax on us to pay
Vat on the cup, vat on coffee and now an extra charge. Bye bye to some small vendors.
Great more money for the government ffs
@Fran O’Keeffe: yes to spend on those pesky things like healthcare, education ,social welfare and all those other inconvenient things that don’t pay for themselves.
@Patrick Daly: No because we are already been taxed to the eyeballs to pay for these services. Services like healthcare and education which are are seriously inadequate due to appalling mismanagement. Services which are by no means available to the ordinary taxpayer without more substantial outlay.
So you want people to hand their reusable cups to Baristas in the middle of a pandemic where sanitisation etc has been the forefront of our minds for 18months? Right.
@icaniwont: You hand them your money!! Right
Why do adults need a lid anyway?, next thing they will be giving out toddlers drink beakers to adults
@Billy Loftus: So that it doesn’t spill, and doesn’t go cold as quickly on the go. Plus the lid stabilises the cardboard cup, like a stiff end cap.
Coffee franchises have been sued over people getting scalded. It’s a useful design – even in recyclable flask designs.
Bring our own flasks as well that’s that sorted
Up the Dubs
Yeah, no. How is it feasible for someone to carry around a reusable coffee mug everywhere they go, even before Covid? Also aren’t most takeaway coffee cups biodegradable now anyway? Another mickey mouse tax levied (pun intended) on people without them having any say.
I hope the Govt will use a percentage of that tax to support all the job losses in the likes of Hugh Jordan (est 1947) and other manufacturers and print branders. A few hundred jobs at risk by this. A lot of workers in Noel Rocks constituency unemployed before long.
Most Coffee shops don’t let you use a keep cup at the moment due to Covid. I hope the Minister will take that into account when he introduces his new legislation.
What about all the homeless horses lately with every horse box in Ireland a coffee shop
Is there going to be an exemption for the already more expensive compostable disposable cups and lids ?
There should be levy’s to fund collecting and recycling plastics – and the charges should be higher the more complex the packaging – multiple different elements glued together should be a lot dearer –
All plastic films should be compostable –
On an eu wide basis that would have a significant impact -
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