Finding solutions in North Cork

Over the last number of years VOICE has been calling for a disposable cup levy.

Cups remain one of the biggest litter items plaguing our countryside, and they remain entirely avoidable. As political action has been slow, we’ve seen communities taking up the mantle and addressing the challenges themselves.

A new initiative being run by IRD Duhallow, and supported by MyWaste.ie, has been launched in the Southern region.

The Community Cups for Events Scheme supports communities to avoid single-use cups and embrace a reusable alternative. The scheme was set up in late 2025 and is running as a social enterprise out of Duhallow in Co Cork.

The setup is simple; groups can rent reusable cups for their local events and then return the cups where they get washed and ready for the next user. At the site in Duhallow there is a dishwasher and drier that makes short work of the returns and gets them clean, dry and ready to be boxed up and go out the door again.

As a community you can order the cups (coffee cups orpint sized) by the box, for delivery or collection. As you use them at your event, you put the used cups back in the box and when they are returned, the scheme will pass them through the machines ready to go out the door again.

A scheme like this running as a social enterprise explicitly to support community groups in the Southern region is exactly the kind of thing we need to support a transition away from single-use packaging. Making it easy, and accessible.

As you know, this is an important issue for us here in VOICE, and we've been calling for alternatives via our Conscious Cup Campaign and most recently our Fingal Reusable Cup Campaign.

It was amazing to see this scheme in action, as it is exactly the kind of joined up thinking we need to help support communities who want to transition away from single-use packaging.

According to the latest IBAL (Irish Businesses Against Litter) report single use/disposable coffee cups are one of the top persistent littered items in Ireland. Schemes like this can make a difference to the health and wellbeing of these communities. Reduce the drudgery of cleaning up after events, as well as creating jobs and industry where there was none before.

In 2026, Ireland’s presidency of the European Council will coincide with the publication of the EU’s Circular Economy Act. The aim of this act is to establish a single market for secondary raw materials and to make the EU the world leader in circular economy by 2030.  

What this scheme shows is that there are alternatives to single use. As the project matures, growth across the country or setting up similar schemes in other areas would make a significant dent in the single-use waste and litter we see so often. And increase the circularity of the community and voluntary events that happen in towns and villages across the region through the spring and summer.

The scheme also shows what VOICE have said many times before, so often communities and groups across the country are waaaaaay ahead of government and the industry on this topic. We have seen it with the sign-ups to our petitions and in response to our community engagement efforts on this.

The Community Cups for Events Scheme in Duhallow offers a powerful and practical example of how communities can move away from single-use waste through simple, shared solutions. By enabling local groups to rent,reuse, and return cups, the initiative demonstrates the kind of joined-up thinking needed to support a real transition away from disposable packaging.

With a national scheme like this, we can reduce waste at the source, not just manage it once it’s been created. We can also create jobs by scaling re-use and repair economies, while strengthening local systems and making ourselves more resilient.

Importantly, this approach is already proving successful beyond Ireland. Smart systems for re-use on-the-go are being trialed across Europe (see our latest blog about reuse on the go in Denmark), reducing both single-use waste and the need for individuals to carry their own cups. The example in North Cork shows that this model can work here too.

We are really excited to see how the scheme develops over the coming months as it heads into its first busy season, but it shows that there is a will energy an alternative to the single use we’ve all so long been sick of the sight of.

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