Council cup scheme helps people to use their mugs!
Galway City Council and 2GoCup are launching a major new environmental campaign to dramatically reduce single-use coffee cups in Galway City.
The three-month pilot project is the first trial of its kind in any Irish city. For that period, nine participating cafes will not offer any single-use cups to customers who buy teas or coffees. Instead, they’ll be selling the beverages in reusable 2GoCups. As part of the environmentally friendly campaign, these cafes will each receive1,400 cups free from Galway City Council and 2GoCup.
A customer will pay €1 to ‘borrow’ the 2GoCup and this will be refunded when they return the receptacle. Or alternatively, they can swap it for free for a similar cup at any of the participating businesses.
Tiarnan McCusker, Environmental Awareness Officer with Galway City Council, said such a scheme was needed.
“In Ireland, we dispose of 200 million coffee cups every year. That’s a whopping 560,000 each day going to landfill or incineration. There are huge environmental consequences with this in terms of litter, waste and climate.
“These nine cafes are leading the way in bringing about a local circular economy with coffee cups and are only selling drinks from the deposit scheme 2GoCups.
“This is the first time that it has been trialled on such a scale in an Irish city and we are looking forward to sharing our findings with other cafes and other local authorities.’’
In addition, many cafes in Galway City have signed up to ‘Use your Mug!’ and will be offering 50 cent discount to customers who bring in their own reusable mugs from April 8-15.
A recent survey by Galway City Council, showed that four out of five respondents had reusable cups but only one out of five used them regularly.
As part of the campaign to promote the use of these cups, a large green coffee cup called ‘Muggins’ will be placed in various locations around the City. Locals and tourists are being encouraged to take a selfie with Muggins and post it to Galway City Councils social media accounts using the #useyourmug
The cafés taking part in the three-month trial are: Mocha Beans,Salthill; Mocha Beans, Cross Street; Mocha Beans, Newcastle Road; Temple Café, St. Augustine Street; The Creamery, Salthill; Rouge, Dominic Street; Ces’t la Vie, Terryland; Anton’s, Fr Griffin Road; Greens & Co, Henry Street.
This campaign is being supported by the Local Authority Prevention Network (LAPN) fund from the EPA and the Waste Prevention Fund.
For more information, visit www.galwaycity.ie/useyourmug.