Outgoing Westmeath County Council Cathaoirleach, John Dolan, was present with Jimmy Redmond of Moate Tidy Towns as they recently launched the ‘Choose to Reuse’ project with a number of businesses in the town, namely McCarthy’s Centra, The Pantry, Dún na Sí and Tuar Ard.
By participating in this project the businesses are offering a discount when you bring in a reusable cup for a refill. The aim of the project is to tackle the problem of single use cups and therefore prevent waste, reduce litter and encourage reuse.
“In Ireland, we are disposing over 200 million single use cups every year and that’s over 22,000 single use cups hourly, it is a huge waste and it is great to see the businesses working with their local Tidy Towns Group leading the way to influence behavioural change,” Cllr. Dolan remarked.
Moate Tidy Towns representative, Jimmy Redmond, contacted the businesses and invited them to get involved and he noted, “single use cups are items that we collect on every litter pick that we do and this initiative is very welcome, we are looking forward to seeing a vast improvement in our town”.
Ruth Maxwell, Environment Department of Westmeath County Council stated “waste prevention is key in the waste management hierarchy, preventing the creation of waste removes the need to dispose of it and this project aims to prevent the need for the single use cups and thereby remove the need to dispose of them also”.
The Conscious Cup campaign aims to decrease the use of single use cups, by encouraging cafes and other outlets to incentivise, through rewarding, customers who bring their own.
The Conscious Cup campaign hope this small change in behaviour will help to influence and start consumers and cafes on their journey towards responsible consumption
