Cork City Council willing to back business driven takeaway cup scheme  

Cork City Council is willing to support the elimination of takeaway cups from the city centre, but the initiative must be led by businesses, council management has said.

Social Democrats councillor Niamh O’Connor and Labour councillor Ciara O’Connor tabled a motion, asking the council to begin a consultation period to introduce a coffee-cup deposit scheme to eliminate single-use takeaway coffee and tea cups in the city.

This scheme, similar to the one in place in Killarney, would see people either pay a deposit of a few euro for a reusable cup (when ordering a takeaway drink), or bring their own one.

David Joyce, the council’s director of emergency services and climate action, said that there has been mixed success with these schemes.

“Killarney offers an example of a successful reusable-coffee-cup scheme, where almost 50 businesses have replaced single-use cups with a deposit-and-return scheme for takeaway drinks.

“This initiative is led by the local business community and is a voluntary initiative, requiring individual businesses to opt to sign up to the scheme.

“Such initiatives have to be business-led and require significant support and commitment from businesses in order to succeed."

“Thus, the success of a reusable-coffee-cup scheme in Cork city would depend on voluntary, widespread participation from local businesses. The city council is ready to support business-representative organisations or groups of businesses who wish to lead this type of initiative,” he said.