What?! Ireland will impose "latte tax" on coffee.

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. Nowadays, more and more people no longer stay in the shop and sip slowly. The coffee shop has already become a spirit gas station, and consumers walk out the door with coffee in hand. "A large latte to take out" is as simple as that. Soon, however, the Irish will pay taxes on it.

Ireland is about to impose a "Latte Levy" (latte tax) in order to create the world's first country not to use disposable coffee cups: each cup of take-away coffee will be at least 20 euro cents more expensive, BBC News reported on July 23. The newly signed circular economy law means that this environmental tax item is only the first step, and all disposable takeout boxes may be taxed in the future.

Irish President Michael Micheal D Higgins signed the Circular economy and Miscellaneous provisions Act 2022 (Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022) on July 22nd to encourage people to phase out disposable products by using recycled, recyclable packaging and other items.

The main goal of the bill is to make Ireland the first country in the world to stop using disposable coffee cups. This means that in cafes or restaurants, consumers are prohibited from using disposable paper cups; at the same time, extra charges are imposed on take-away coffee cups; consumers can choose to bring their own reusable cups to save the expense.

This autumn, the Irish government will consult the public on the enactment of the disposable paper cup taxation bill for a period of about 90 days, which is expected to come into effect before the end of the year.

Ireland's Minister of State for Public Expenditure and Reform, Ossian Smyth, said on the Morning Ireland radio program that the bill is not just for coffee cups, but for all food or product packaging.

"if we find a good reusable alternative and we think it is feasible, we can impose a small tax on certain (one-off) things to encourage consumers to make changes."

"Let's start with the coffee cup. We went through this process 20 years ago in the use of plastic bags, and we set a precedent. "

Ireland began taxing plastic bags in 2002, charging 15 euro cents per bag, when plastic bags were ubiquitous and accounted for 5% of the country's total waste. In 2007, the tax per plastic bag rose to 22 euro cents, and the use of plastic bags was reduced by 95% under heavy taxes.

Ireland's proposed latte tax is not on a whim. Ireland wastes about 200m coffee cups a year, or 22000 coffee cups per hour, according to the Irish Recycling list (Recycling List Ireland) project of MyWaste in 2018.

Since 2019, environmental groups and Irish officials have proposed to increase the "latte tax" in the environmental tax category to solve the pollution caused by a large number of disposable paper cups that cannot be recycled.

Even if these disposable paper cups are printed with the "Recycled" logo, it is difficult to recycle these disposable cups, only the thermal insulation paper sleeve meets the recycling conditions. Because these cups are made of two very different materials, the inside of the cup is made of polyethylene film for waterproof, which keeps the cup from falling apart when holding drinks.

Since the outbreak, the consumer price index (CPI) in various countries has remained high, which means that the cost of living is rising, and the new 20 euro cents "latte tax" is not good news for many consumers and businesses.

According to Irish Examiner, an opinion poll shows that nearly 2/3 of Irish consumers oppose the "takeaway coffee cup ban" and 63% believe that recyclable and compostable cups should be excluded from the "latte tax".

Photo Source: Internet

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