Cork Tidy Towns group lead the way with first compostable cup bin

The North Cork town of Fermoy has become the first in Ireland to provide a compostable coffee cup and lid bin outside businesses in its main square. 

The volunteer group driving the change go by the name 'Fermoy - A Cleaner Town' and have been working to make their town a cleaner, better place to live for over 7 years. With Fermoy declared 'Ireland's Cleanest Town' by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) group in 2019, their efforts certainly appear to be making a difference.

The compostable bin has been installed outside The Heron Café and Hanley's Newsagents in the town — two businesses that use compostable coffee cups and lids. It is also being collected and recycled for free by Country Clean Recycling. 

According to UK recycling website Resource, 'The majority of (non-compostable) coffee cups currently in circulation are made with a cardboard outer layer and a plastic lining. The materials are difficult to separate and can contaminate the paper and cardboard waste stream with both the plastic element and any liquid still remaining in the cup.'

Compostable coffee cups are being adopted by more and more food outlets across the country, as businesses look for greener takeaway solutions for their customers and an alternative to reusable cups which aren't hugely popular.

Consumers are reminded by waste management authorities that compostable cups need to be disposed of into bins such as the one in Fermoy, or into your brown bin at home or at work, as they have to be handled by an industrial composting facility in order to be recycled properly. It reportedly takes an average of 12 months for them to break down in these facilities.