Reducing Waste with VOICE at Dublin Coffee Festival

VOICE are delighted to partner with Cup North on the Dublin Coffee Festival. As you wander around the event in Dublin, imbibing the fine coffees from baristas across Ireland, you want to be thinking about the coffee, not about the impact of your coffee cup. By simply re-using a cup, we reduce waste, and, in so doing, build the momentum to a more circular and less wasteful society here in Ireland. 

VOICE have been active in Ireland for over 25 years, and in that time we’ve campaigned on issues from the introduction of the plastic bag tax, food waste, a ban on single use vapes, and calling on retailers to reduce packaging waste (waste that we the consumer have to manage!).  This year saw the culmination of a long number of years' work bear fruit with the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme. 

For a number of years, the issue of coffee cups has been to the forefront of our minds  - not simply because they are a growing problem, but because they are a problem with an easy solution. 

Conscious un-cup-ling. 

In 2017 we ran the Conscious Cup campaign, which recognised that the growing issue of single use coffee cups in Ireland needed to be addressed.  In 2018, we were using 22,000 coffee cups per hour, a huge and growing waste stream, which regularly featured as the most often littered item in the Irish Business Against Litter surveys. The Conscious Cup Campaign supported cafes to accept re-usable cups from their customers, and supported the customers on the use of reusable cups. Through engagement with all stakeholders the campaign aimed to normalise reusable cups, by addressing the questions for businesses and customers. From a meager start the campaign built up a thriving community where a reusable cup is accepted in businesses across the country. 

You can read the Conscious Cups guide to becoming a cup free community through the link below.

Giving it ‘cup

But the story doesn’t stop there. VOICE is also calling for the introduction of the disposable cup levy. We have shown that there is an alternative to single use cups that works and has support from the community – all hail Killarney! Such a levy will incentivise and support the reuse of cups, moving away from the wasteful single use items in much the same way as the plastic bag tax drastically reduced our cities and countryside of the scourge of plastic bags. 

As we continue to put pressure on and call for this change, we see communities across the country taking the issue into their own hands and leading the way by coming together to become ‘single use cup free’. Businesses, and community members, have come together to decide that they are sick of this waste item and want no more of it! It’s time for the government to step up and support these communities!  

VOICE are supporting the Dublin Coffee Festival, as it is a single use cup free event.  The event is supporting waste segregation with general, recycling and organic waste segregation. If you happen to be there on Friday, you’ll see us speaking about the importance of waste segregation, particularly for organic waste. 

As coffee drinkers and lovers, the best way to truly appreciate a coffee is to sit and sip. Taste the notes, share the experience and keep the cup.

Read all about VOICE and it’s campaigns here: https://www.voiceireland.org/