News Thirty-nine: Disposable cup levy to be introduced in Ireland

A new levy to restrict the use of disposable coffee cups is to be introduced in the Republic of Ireland.

The so-called latte levy aims to incentivise the use of recycled and reusable alternatives to single-use disposable packaging.

It also paves the way for use of CCTV to detect and deter illegal dumping and littering.

Legislation was signed into law on Thursday by President Michael D Higgins.

Ossian Smyth, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, has said the government will enter into a public consultation process in relation to the levy, which will take about 90 days to complete.

“It’s not just about coffee cups, it’s any food packaging or any product packaging,” he said.

“If we find out that there is a good reusable alternative and we think it’s feasible to move to that, we can put a small levy on something and encourage consumers to change.

“We’re starting with coffee cups. We’ve been through this process before with plastic bags 20 years ago and we made exceptions.”

The minister added that some cafés have already removed disposable cups and “it’s working really well for them”.