DRAFT MODE - No emails will be sent to targets. Step One Enter your Details In collaboration with VOICE Ireland, Friends of the Earth has been campaigning against excessive waste and single use plastic for many years. We’ve taken some important steps forward in the fight against disposable items. Irish and EU legislation has started tackling the very worst culprits that have been polluting our beaches, harming both people and wildlife and clogging up landfill sites. But there’s still more to do - not least winning the war against disposable cups! Following years of campaigning the Government is proposing to introduce a levy on single-use cups. It’s fantastic news - but we’re not over the line just yet. The Government is currently running a consultation on this levy. It’s a great opportunity to have our say on making the levy as watertight as possible, close off loopholes and make sure it’s fit for purpose. Use our e-action to make a submission to the consultation before it closes at 5.30pm this Friday, 25th November? A levy on disposal cups is good but we need much more than that. We want the Government to clamp down on all single use items. And to make it easy for people to live without them! The disposal cup levy consultation is an opportunity to ask for more. To demand that the levy be expanded to all single-use packaging, beyond disposable cups alone. Please take our e-action to back our call for a levy on all single use packaging! Circular Economy - Materials Management Division Your Details Fields marked with an asterisk * must be completed. Name * E-mail * Constituency * Constituency * ------- Not Applicable Carlow / Kilkenny Cavan / Monaghan Clare Cork East Cork North Central Cork North West Cork South Central Cork South West Dún Laoghaire Donegal Dublin Bay North Dublin Bay South Dublin Central Dublin Fingal Dublin Mid-West Dublin North West Dublin Rathdown Dublin South Central Dublin South West Dublin West Galway East Galway West Kerry Kildare North Kildare South Laois / Offaly Limerick City Limerick County Longford / Westmeath Louth Mayo Meath East Meath West Roscommon / Galway Sligo / Leitrim Tipperary Waterford Wexford Wicklow Yes, keep me posted on your campaigning and what I can do. No, I don't want to hear from you again. Only use my personal data to deliver this campaign action. We respect your privacy, read more. Friends of the Earth will send you periodic updates and action alerts by email. We will do our best to respect your time and interest. You can remove yourself from the mailing list at any time by using the link at the bottom of emails we send you. We will not give your email address to anybody else. Check Your Message Message Subject: Edit the email subject line - (optional) Message Text: Dear (each target will get a separate, personalised email), I support the introduction of a 20-cent levy on single-use disposable cups. I believe that this type of measure will reduce the use of single-use cups, raise awareness around single-use packaging more generally and serve as an example for other measures in the future to reduce our consumption of disposable packaging. I support the levy because the preparatory research done on this scheme by EnvEcon estimates that, in Ireland, we are using 200-730 million disposable cups annually and that a charge will be much more effective than just awareness-raising and/or a discount in changing behaviour and reducing this number. Research for Bewleys found the charge could quickly increase the use of reusable cups from 2.3% to 12.5%. The EnvEcon reports recommends a 20 cent levy on single use disposable cups and I support that recommendation. I also agree with the EnvEcon findings that this levy should apply equally to all types of disposable cups, including traditional, compostable and recyclable. The on-street infrastructure does not exist for even the most conscious consumer to recycle or compost take-way cups, and moreover the experience is that no amount of public information prevents all types of disposable cups ending up as litter in the wrong bins. It also essential that the new scheme has a strong definition of what counts as resuable to avoid the problem that is happening at the moment with plastic cutlery. Single-use plastic cutlery is now banned under EU law but some cafes are just rebranding the same plastic knives and forks as resuable and putting the responsibility back on consumers without providing any information, collection, sanitisation or logistics system to make reuse possible. The levy scheme must ensure that cafes are not able to give out free plastic cups that are theoretically ‘reusable’, but in all likelihood won’t be reused. Finally, it is important to remember that the disposable cup tax is just one part of what must be a much bigger effort by Government to reduce the use of plastic packaging, extending producer responsibility and making it easier for people to avoid plastic in their everyday consumer experience. With regards to this I would like to see the levy expanded to all single-use packaging, beyond disposable cups alone. A complete ban on the use of single-use packaging on premises (i.e. when a customer eats-in in a café or restaurant) is needed. Re-use targets are also needed for not only 'front-of-house packaging' but for secondary and tertiary packaging too. Yours sincerely etc, Edit the email text - (optional) Next Step - Preview your message → Categorised in: Waste Tagged with: Sick of Plastic