EVERY CAFÉ IN a Wicklow town now offer a discount for customers who order a hot drink with a reusable cup.

Delgany in Wicklow is the first town in Ireland where all of the cafés have decided to do this.

The Delgany Tidy Towns organisation was contacted by the Conscious Cup Campaign recently – an organisation dedicated to reducing and eventually eliminating single use cups in Ireland.

The group estimates that in Ireland, over 200 million non-recyclable cups are disposed of annually here.

Zoe Woodward – public relations officer with the Delgany Community Council and Delgany Tidy Towns – said that she was contacted by the campaign and was delighted to get involved.

“Their goals are totally in line with the Delgany Tidy Towns ethos,” she said.

It was an easy concept for us to get behind and the coffee outlets in Delgany were fully supportive of it when we spoke to them about coming on board.

Patrick Ryan – owner of The Firehouse Bakery in the town – said that his café had been accepting reusable cups for the past five years.

“This is something that we have done since we first opened our doors almost 5 years ago,” he said.

Accepting reusable cups is a little thing but it is the little things that add up and the more we can all do no matter how small has to make a difference.

Read: Latte levy and reusable cup discounts could reduce our plastic cup waste by 250,000 a day

Read: Coffee shops that reward customers with reusable cups advised to refuse dirty ones