699
‘It was a plague’: Killarney becomes first Irish town to ban single-use coffee cups
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
699 points (98.3% liked)
World News
39041 readers
2748 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They are pretty convenient though. Are there any sustainable alternatives?
Like with straws, I know for fact that there are non-paper biodegradable ones.
Also, with discovery of plastic-eating bacteria, how is the definition of biodegradable shifting?
Edit: Obligatory mention of industry regulations being more effective in helping the environment
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
These are in order of priority. You want to recycle as a last resort, and reduce or reuse instead, if that works.
It will require rethinking business models. On-site consumption will have to be in ceramic mugs or other reusable dishware, and people looking for anything to-go will either have to bring their own portable coffee mugs and pay by volume or the business will have to sell their own reusable portable mugs and continue to charge fixed quantities.
I would be afraid of the company to sell their own reusable mugs because, if the problem boils down to mostly tourists, most of those would still end up in landfills.
There's been plenty of recent developments on plastic-free coffee cups. Even ones that have very thin layers of biodegradable plastic. A few years ago someone came up with fully carton based cups that hold coffee.
But I think that reusable cups are probably more viable. The €2 deposit sounds pretty hefty, so it's going to strongly encourage people to bring their own cups and actually return the reusable ones. Mini-thermoses are cool, I like them.
2 euros isn’t a lot in Ireland
If anything, I expect the measure to encourage people to not drink coffee at all, or to wait until they're home instead.
Simple fact of the matter is that that sounds really inconvenient, and needs justifying. If there are readily available biodegradable options right there, why on earth wouldn't you use them?
Because that's still trash. From the teaser above:
Apparently they got sick of disposable coffee cups, so suggesting a cup which biodegrades is not exactly a solution to their problem.
As a resident of another town, I find filled bins, littered roads and trash in nature really inconvenient. Happy to see it justified.
What’s inconvenient about it? That you have to return the cup? Seems pretty lazy.
I mean you could even return the cup at the airport so if you forget to return it in town you could deposit it when you leave.
It's just like bringing your own bags to the store, sorting your trash for recycling or returning bottles and cans to the store.
Just return the cup and get your deposit back.