As the Government's proposed latte levy continues to be delayed, Róisín Cullen looks at our coffee cup habits, the true cost of a reusable cup and what the future will hold for this long-awaited measure.
When the previous government was looking at introducing the latte levy three years ago, it said people here throw out 22,000 takeaway cups every hour - with one million cups per minute globally ending up in landfills and incinerators.
The Irish Business Against Litter group has since called for this levy to be introduced after single-use coffee cups were found on 42% of the beaches it surveyed this summer.
The levy, legislated for in 2022, would add 20c to the price of a coffee served in a disposable cup but three years later it remains in the planning stages.
Killarney has taken the lead on the issue - becoming the first town in Ireland to phase out single-use coffee cups in 2023.
At that time, the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment's proposed latte levy resembled the plastic bag levy, where people pay 22c extra for a plastic bag at the check-out.
However, it is now working towards a different collection model - where the levy is collected when the cups are first placed on the market by producers or importers.
This would require an amendment to the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, something it is engaging with Revenue on.
A spokesperson said it is looking at the impact of this changed model and "and any other policy measure to reduce single use cup consumption effectively".
They said many consumers and businesses have already made the switch to reusable cups "saving the purchase cost of throw-away cups and reducing the cost to the public purse of litter clean-ups".
Old habits die hard
These reusable cups were once seen as the simple way to keep single-use cups out of landfills.
But changing Irish coffee lovers' every day habits is no easy feat.
In response to a government online survey in November 2023, 83% of those surveyed said they owned a reusable cup, but just 33% used it every time they bought a takeaway coffee.
Of the 1,314 respondents, 40% said remembering to bring a reusable cup would be a challenge.
However, 86% said displaying the price of a disposable cup, separate to the cost of the coffee, would encourage them to use a reusable cup.
One of the issues raised in the previous government's consultation was that a latte levy would cause the market to be flooded with more plastic in cheap reusable cups.
The department said provisions would be made in the act to address this issue of cheap or flimsy reusable cups.
Since then, experts around the world have raised concerns that the reusable cup industry has been "hijacked" by fast-fashion trends.
They believe these reusable cups are not being reused correctly.
Professor of Sustainability Studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Maurie Cohen said what started as a "good idea" has ended up "being taken over" and became the "latest marketing trend that will inevitably burn itself out".
Prof Cohen sees reusable cups as an example of "the fast fashion phenomenon becoming usurped and repurposed for ulterior purposes".
All it takes is a quick scroll on your fast-fashion site of choice to see this problem.
There you will find the perfect reusable cup for every occasion - hen parties, birthdays, graduations - all cheap enough to be pushed to the back of a press and forgotten about.
How many reusable cups do you have at home?
Some households may have multiple reusable cups stacking up at home, collecting dust.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said a reusable plastic cup would need to be used around 20 times to make it better for the environment.
Meanwhile, it found stainless steel cups need to be reused over 130 times to have a climate impact that is equivalent to a paper cup with a polystyrene lid.
The UNEP suggests that paper cups can even become a better option in terms of environmental impact if the recycling of these cups exceeds 80%.
However, it has warned this target is not realistic as these cups' plastic-paper make-up makes them nearly impossible to dispose of properly.
Meanwhile, single-use compostable cups can only be broken down in designated composting facilities where the right conditions, heat and time turn them into compost.
Dr Samantha Fahy from Dublin City University’s climate programme said this process takes 14 weeks.
A lot of the time the compostable cups are being used in places where the right facilities do not even exist, said Dr Llorenç Milà i Canals who conducts the UN’s research on this topic.
"We’re never going to get 100% compositing," he said.
A certified compostable cup should be placed in the brown, food waste bin, but the lids and sleeves should be washed and disposed of in the green, recycling bin.
However, a café owner said that even with a designated composter from Dublin City Council on site, they had to scrap these types of cups.
They said customers were "totally confused" and most compostable cups just ended up in the recycling bin.
Market for reusable cups soaring
This brings us back to our reusable cups, which were originally meant to replace single-use cups.
Instead, the markets for both types of cups are rocketing with the reusable cup market set to grow from $17 billion in 2024 to $35bn in 2037, according to Dr Fahy from DCU.
Meanwhile, data shows the disposable cup market was worth $7bn last year but will hit $9.1bn by 2033.
Dr Fahy is concerned about how companies are advertising reusable cups and showcasing a constant need for more.
"We are living on a finite planet; we cannot continue to consume at the rate that we are consuming," she said.
True cost of reusable cup
Understanding the true cost of a reusable cup is an important step in changing consumer behaviour.
This means looking at the materials and energy that go into making a cup before it ever ends up on the shop floor.
"You have to limit the number of those high-energy, high-material cost items that you use and use them over and over again," Professor Sandra Goldmark from Columbia University Climate School said.
She added that a "culture shift" is needed but that this needs to come from policy makers.
Prof Goldmark said companies should be making and marketing reusable cups as products to last decades, not as collector’s items.
Dr Milà i Canals agrees that the true cost of a reusable cup is worth thinking about.
However, he stressed reusable cups are still the very best option for the environment as they can be recycled at the end of their lives and turned into new things.
'Buy one…don’t collect multiples’
'Keep Cup' has become synonymous with reusable cups.
The Australia-based company said it shares the "concern about overconsumption, even within the reuse space".
"We encourage people to buy one and use it for as long as possible, not collect multiples," a spokesperson said.
Companies at home are trying to stay ahead of the curve, with many seeing deposit return schemes as the way to forward.
2GoCup has even gone out of its way to make sure its cups do not look too flashy.
It uses neutral colours in a bid to prevent people from gathering unnecessary multiples.
The company’s founder, Kevin Murphy, said the core problem with reusable cups is that "seven in 10 people here in Ireland already own a Keep Cup or equivalent but only one in 10 of them actually use it".
It instead uses a system where people pay €2 extra for a 2GoCup, use the product and then return the cup to get their money back.
Vytal Ireland allows consumers to borrow cups and return them free of charge to anywhere that uses the system within a 14-day period.
However, not returning the container incurs a penalty of around €5.
Co-founder Michelle Moloughney believes most people have around 12 reusable cups in their presses.
"When you make it voluntary, people will just say they will do it next time," she said.
"When it’s obligatory - people just do it."
According to the UNEP, coffee consumption outside of the home is "growing significantly".
This has led to a time-crunch for governments to impose rules to ensure reusable cups do not become a tick-box exercise.
As they wait for the obligatory, consumers try to play their part for the planet.
In Killarney, business owner and Tidy Towns volunteer Johnny Maguire said he has never "seen anything as transformative for the environment of the town as the coffee cup project".
"It's a 50% reduction in the quantity of paper cups, and it's a tremendous saving to the environment," he said.
He has called for the Government to "have the backbone to go against the packaging industry" and introduce a latte levy like the plastic bag levy.
"Everybody had plastic shopping bags at home. Now we have drawers full of cups. People are not going to go to the bother of bringing out the cup until such time as the latte (levy) comes in," he said.
"And that's the top and tail of the story."
