TheCity

Tag: plastic

  • Packing plastic: The rise of zero-waste shopping

    Packing plastic: The rise of zero-waste shopping

    Zero-waste shop, The Good Neighbour, in Dundrum . Image courtesy of The Good Neighbour

    Waste probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of your local grocery store. 

    As you coast through its aisles, fixated on convenience and choice, the harsh reality is easy to forget – our weekly shopping runs are wasteful endeavours.

    The plastic packaging our food comes in is a nasty ecological sore. Thankfully, the solution is easy: come prepared with alternative/reusable packaging options.

    The Good Neighbour in Dundrum is one example of a business that is following the increasingly popular zero-waste model, designed to focus purely on reducing the amount of plastic waste.

    “The concept is simple – bring your own container, and we weigh it in-store and deduct the weight of your container, so you are only charged on whatever food you take home,” says Jess Dollinger, the owner of The Good Neighbour.

    The zero-waste shop initially opened its doors to the public in December 2019, which happened to be just four months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

    The interior of The Good Neighbour, with containers of rice and grains on display. Image courtesy of The Good Neighbour

    According to Dollinger, The Good Neighbour was forced to “pivot” in order to deal with the impact of the pandemic. 

    “We didn’t originally offer the option for customers to place orders, but we now offer orders for delivery and collection. Offering that service has really helped the business due to the high volumes of people quarantining,” Dollinger said.

    “We’ve also got a great community of customers who want to make sure the shop thrives, so we’ve been very lucky throughout the pandemic,” she continued.

    The shop offers over 300 bulk goods including grains, fruit and veg, spices, and several cleaning products – all package free.

    “Our mission is to be as organic and plastic-free as possible. At this point, around 60% of our products are organic, and we’re constantly working on increasing our organic offering to customers,” Dollinger stated.

    It’s “crucial for the industry”, says Dollinger, that her shop sells affordable products, as there’s a perception that choosing to live a zero-waste lifestyle is exorbitant for the everyday consumer.

    “I think that we’ll eventually see a zero-waste shop in every area of Dublin”

    Jess Dollinger

    The Good Neighbour works alongside multiple local growers and producers to stock as much Irish produce as possible.

    “Wherever possible we source locally. Unfortunately, a lot of things simply can’t be grown here, but where we can we purchase from local growers and suppliers.

    “We’ll continue to support local farmers and produce, particularly throughout the pandemic,” Dollinger says. In recent years, climate change awareness has increased, and consumer habits have shifted to reflect that.

    In Ireland, some companies are responding to that change with supermarkets taking action to reduce packaging and waste. Vegan and vegetarian sections have increased in size, and a lot of single-use coffee cups are now compostable.

    Now, more and more people are choosing to live a zero-waste lifestyle. 

    Currently, there are eight zero-waste shops open for business in Dublin alone. The majority of these shops opened within the last two years.

    “I stumbled across my first zero-waste [shop] when I was living in the UK. When I returned to Dublin, I noticed that several [zero-waste] shops began popping up across the city,” says Orla Browne, an environmental activist and frequent zero-waste customer.

    “Living a zero-waste lifestyle is becoming more fashionable than ever before”

    Orla Browne

    Although the attitudes towards an eco-friendly lifestyle for many has changed, Ireland still currently produces the highest volume of plastic waste per person in the EU at 57 kilos per capita, which is considerably more than the EU average of 33 kilos per capita.

    “Since returning home, I have noticed a change in attitude towards these issues, but you only must observe the stats to see how far behind we are in comparison to the rest of Europe.

    “To contribute to the greater good, embarking on a zero-waste lifestyle by reducing small amounts of plastic in your household is a start,” Browne added.

    However, Browne feels like we are still far off when it comes to acting on reducing plastic waste.

    “The stats show that Ireland is well behind when it comes to dealing with environmental issues. This is something we as a nation should be wary of.

    “I think people hesitate to go zero-waste because they are afraid that other [zero-waste] advocates will judge them if they don’t fully commit at all times.

    “However, it’s not true. I found encouragement and the will to try harder by surrounding myself with like-minded people,” says Browne.

    The zero-waste movement has arrived and the greater availability of this retail option to all Irish shoppers will allow it to become the norm.

  • The life of a coffee cup: are compostable lids really compostable?

    The life of a coffee cup: are compostable lids really compostable?

    By Luke Toomey and Sian Abraham long

    Even the savviest of coffee consumers have experienced the coffee lid confusion. At the condiments counter you’ve asked yourself; do I take the regular lid, or this slightly off white compostable, but just as effective version? Any one of us concerned about the climate crisis will choose whatever option sells us a more environmentally sound version of ourselves. But how compostable is this new phenomenon, really?  

    On November 6 of this year, the Minister for Climate Action, Richard Bruton announced that he will be introducing a coffee cup levy to single-use and compostable cups. The new levy, which will be introduced within three years, aims to encourage a pivot towards more sustainable options when it comes to coffee containment.    

                                                                                                      



    Compostable coffee lids have become increasingly popular among cafe culture in recent years. Any sustainable alternative has to be a good thing, right? This would be the case if the right infrastructure was in place in Ireland for the industrial composting required of ‘compostable’ cups and lids.

    A typical compostable coffee cup lid

    Understanding domestic recycling is not intuitive so it’s not surprising that many people believe a cup or lid labelled ‘compostable’ is a better choice for the environment. Arguably, they can be, but only when they’re correctly disposed off. Composting these ‘compostable’ lids and cups, can only happen in a controlled environment – commercial composting.

    Composting these ‘compostable’ lids and cups, can only happen in a controlled environment – commercial composting. 

    Our public system

    In Dublin, we are somewhat in the junior infants equivalent of European waste management services. German cities have made a positive example of themselves by providing segregated waste bins on their streets, for better, more efficient recycling. According to Simon Brock from Dublin City Council (DCC), Dublin has attempted to implement a segregated bin system in the past. These trials, the DCC said, yielded a high contamination rate of recyclable waste, which means they cannot be recycled. 

    Dublin City Council collects over 16.5 thousand tonnes of waste per year. This includes waste from public bins, street sweeping and illegal dumping. When our city is collecting this much waste, should it not be utilising the same system as our European counterparts? A second trial of this segregated system is planned to be introduced in the new year in certain areas of Dublin.

    A segregated system can only work under a unified public effort to ensure we are correctly separating our waste, be it at home or out and about. Chucking a milky coffee cup in on top of dry, mixed recyclables means anything spoiled is returned to our general, non recyclable waste bin.


    Understanding what happens to our coffee cups and lids, compostable or not, allows us to make a better judgement when it comes to choosing how we contain our hot drinks. Scroll through our timeline to discover what happens to any one of the options you might choose.




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    Treefree Cups are made from the fibres of sugar-cane waste and are fully compostable under controlled conditions.
    Closing the loop

    Coffee shops using these compostable products will ideally separate them from other waste. Once returned the coffee cups and lids are commercially composted in an environment designed to be a perfect place for these products to break down. These conditions will contain the correct balance of microbes, warmth and moisture which makes the process quick and easy.

    Take the Treefree Cup, for example. Zeus, the Irish global packaging company, produces one of the only paper-free compostable cups in Ireland which instead, opts for fibrous materials from sugar-cane waste. Businesses that use their products are provided with a special cup collection bin that are returned back to Zeus for composting in order to ‘close the loop’ on biodegradable waste management systems.

    Its estimated that less than 1% of compostable cups are actually being composted properly worldwide and so closed loop systems ensures that these cups and lids are composted properly and do not find themselves in a landfill.

    Become a VegWare Vigilante?

    If we can’t put them in our domestic waste, in public bins then you might think to compost these items at home yourself. While you’re welcome to try your hand at it, according to Vegware.com: “Home composting conditions vary with the skill of the householder, so we don’t make any claims there, but there have been successful trials using hot compost bins.”

    Dublin City Council collects over 16.5 thousand tonnes of waste per year. This includes waste from public bins, street sweeping and illegal dumping. When our city is collecting this much waste, should it not be utilising the same system as our European counterparts? A second trial of this segregated system is planned to be introduced in the new year in certain areas of Dublin.

    A segregated system can only work under a unified public effort to ensure we are correctly separating our waste, be it at home or out and about. Chucking a milky coffee cup in on top of dry, mixed recyclables means anything spoiled is returned to our general, non recyclable waste bin. 

    How is our public waste managed?

    “All waste that is deposited in public litter bins goes through processing at a waste facility to extract waste streams for a variety of uses including recycling and for use as SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) or RSF (Refuse Recovered Fuel),” said Brock.

    Dublin City Council collects over 16.5 thousand tonnes of waste every year.

    Solid recovered fuel refers to fuel created through a process of dehydrating combustible waste such as biodegradable food waste, paper and kitchen waste, dirt, rocks and clothing. 

    Refuse recovered fuel is produced by using whatever is left over from the process of creating an SRF. An RSF is a non-specified waste, this makes it difficult to assure quality and environmental-soundness. 

    The future of coffee cups

    The current infrastructure does not allow for recycling or composting the coffee lids and cups we’re using every day. So what options have we?

    According to MyWaste.ie, a reusable cup used only seven times is more sustainable than a single-use coffee cup and lid – compostable or not. So next time you turn to the condiments counter at your local coffee shop, the only thing you should plan to reach for is the milk.

    A better understanding of how our waste and recycling is managed is required to make more environmentally sound decisions about our single-use, non-recyclables and compostables. Often, we might think we are making the right decisions about products which may not mean to be misleading in how environmentally friendly they are. With little infrastructure currently in place to maximise the environmental impact of these new compostable lids, the catering industry and our government alike should place focus and incentives on the use of reusable cups.