The Minister for Climate Action and Environment, Eamon Ryan released the details of Ireland’s National Waste Policy 2020-2025.
As a part of the policy the government plans to ban certain single use plastics and implement a levy on throwaway cups. The plan is to tackle waste over the next five years.
Halve food waste by 2030, introduce a deposit and return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminum cans, place a levy on disposable cups, ban certain single-use plastics from July 2021, etc. are some of the major things included in the plan.
“We all know that our current model of production and consumption is unsustainable in terms of resource use, waste disposal, climate change and loss of biodiversity,” said Minister Ryan.
He also said that people need to rethink the relationship with the stuff around them – how it is produced, used and disposed.
As a part of the ban on single-use plastics things such as cotton bud sticks, cutlery, plates, chopsticks and polystyrene containers will be totally made unavailable from 2021.
Former Climate Action Minister, Richard Bruton, said that charging the disposable cups can help to reduce its usage and thus it will be a great help to the environment. He also mentioned that around 22,000 disposable cups are used in an hour.
As a part of the five-year plan, the total elimination of single-use cups will be trialed in certain town, institutions, transport and commercial centers. There will be restriction on the use of disposable cups in places like sit-in cafes, there the beverage could be served in a reusable container.
By 2030 all the packaging will be either reusable or recyclable.
The Department of Climate Action and Environment believes that the plan will place Ireland at the vanguard of EU efforts.
The plan says that the companies and manufactures, who makes and sell disposable products will be environmentally accountable for the product.