Up to 33k tonnes of plastic waste

Households across Cork fill 730 Olympic sized swimming pools full of single use plastic waste every year.

That’s according to a study carried out by Irish start up CUSP (Cease Using Single-Use Plastic) which looked at the volumes of single-use plastic packaging waste generated across Cork city and county and identified hotspots in terms of volumes, which if given priority would see, CUSP says, significant reductions in the amounts generated in the county each year.

CUSP takes the global numbers on single-use plastic waste and distils these numbers down into smaller bite-sized reduction targets community groups and that households can more easily relate to which are delivered via CUSP’s free mobile app.

Altogether, Cork households generate a combined 32,900 tonnes of single-use plastic packaging waste annually.

CUSP was established in 2018 to develop solutions to what it calls a burgeoning crises.

CUSP founder Simon Ruddy said: “Our research found consumers are put-off trying to reduce their single-use plastic waste by the continuous reporting of the crises in the millions of tonnes.

“This leaves people wondering ‘what’s the point trying to reduce…my small contribution is hardly going to make any difference’.”

The table shows lists volumes for 16 Cork towns and city districts, which cumulatively accounts for 31 per cent of the county’s annual single-use plastic waste pile. Also listed are reduction targets aligned to the key UN sustainability goal for the elimination of all non-essential single-use plastic packaging by 2030, estimated at 70 per cent of current global consumption.