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‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups

www.theguardian.com ‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups

A blanket ‘bring or buy’ reusable scheme has been introduced in the town, which was getting through 23,000 cups a week

‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups

Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.

The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.

Not any more. Three months ago, Killarney became the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups. If you want a takeaway coffee from a cafe or hotel, you must bring your own cup or pay a €2 deposit for a reusable cup that is returned when the cup is given back.

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