Ballivor brews up eco- friendly idea

Ballivor Tidy Towns are hoping to wean people off single use coffee cups regardless what they were made of, and switch to reusable keep cups instead.

With the assistance of the Department for Rural and Community Development, the Tidy Towns group have produced a special one-off coffee cup for Ballivor.

These free re-usable cups are being placed at premises in Ballivor which sell take away coffees and teas. Funding is limited so there is a limited supply of cups available. The cups are in the colours of Ballivor GAA club – maroon and white- and feature a photograph of the daffodils in Ballivor by Will Leech, local photographer.

A spokesperson for Ballivor Tidy Towns said: “We are very grateful for a grant from the Department for Rural and Community Development which supported this project as part of encouraging sustainable living and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). We continue to get great support from Meath County Council and Ballivor Community Council.”

Ballivor Tidy Towns outlined that studies showed that less than five per cent of single use cups were recycled or composted, while recycling of lids was virtually zero.

Coffee cups are among the most prevalent litter types found, with research from the Department of the Environment showing that nearly 200 million disposable cups end up in landfill or incinerators each year.

A New Single Use Coffee Cup Charge is to be introduced later this year under new Government measures aimed at reducing the 200m cups that are dumped each year. Minister of State for the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth said he hoped the 20c levy would be introduced by the end of the year, but the Government will have to seek approval from the EU, which will take about three months.

This process will begin with a ban on the use of disposable coffee cups for sit-in customers in cafés and restaurants, followed by the introduction of the charge on disposable cups for takeaway coffees that can be avoided completely by using a keep cup.