I recently visited Killarney and I thought it was a great system. As a tourist, the €2 was no big deal to have a cup for the whole week. Then I just returned it before I left and got the money back. They do this all over Germany and have branded cups for each town. It would be cool to see it more widely done elsewhere too.

Very good system. We all need to get into the habit of bringing our own bottles/cups and reusable bags when we're out and about.

I understand a 100 percent. Most shops here switched to something like recup, but I really like taking 10 minutes to drink from a decent cup. And, of course, italians always had al banco, where you drink a quick caffe` (espresso) while standing at the bar

what a great idea. i would like to see this in my own home town. so much waste could be avoided…

Looks like a good idea

I live in Ireland and litter is a major issue. Bottles, cans, cups, discarded food, trash dumped in country lanes and worst of all fly tipping. I think a lot of these issues are easy to remedy and while reusable coffee cups are a positive there is a lot more that could be done.

As a former barista, getting rid of single use cups would easily cut a coffee shops waste in half, if not more.

Oh, and if your local coffee shop has a recycle bin/slot, chances are whatever goes into it goes into the regular trash. People are stupid and think everything they put in there is recyclable and workers don't have the time to sort through it.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.

Eliminating single-use cups sounds a relatively modest goal but only a handful of other towns, such as Freiburg in Germany, are known to have tried similar initiatives.

“We were looking at options for community projects, and we thought, ‘Oh, coffee cups, that’ll be quick’,” said Louise Byrne, a sustainability manager for the Killarney Park Hotel and The Ross.

The campaign sought to enlist all of Killarney’s 21 independent cafes, a lengthy process of individual face-to-face meetings, research, negotiations, a town hall-style gathering, a video, and more discussions.

In addition to environmental benefits, the organisers said cafes could save money – each disposable cup costs 20 to 30 cents – and enhance Killarney’s brand.

He had no objection to paying a €2 deposit for a takeaway cup that could be returned to any cafe in Killarney or 400 locations across Ireland, including Dublin airport, that are part of a wider campaign.

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Is that where Pat's Famous Chicken is from?

I personally did this like a year ago. Its extremely easy because almost every coffee machine out there will have a refillable pod that you load with your own grounds. So instead of putting in a pod you just load a scoop and put in your pod. Oh and it's way cheaper and honestly tastier.