The government of Ireland will impose a ‘latte levy‘ on disposable coffee cups by 2021 to change the habits of consumer and cut the usage of single-use plastics.
Ireland’s Climate Action and Environment Minister on 6th November said that the Irish government will impose a ‘latte levy’ on disposable coffee cups by 2021 to change the habits of consumer and cut the usage of single-use plastics.
The Reuters reports the Irish government hopes that the proposed tax of up to 0.25 euros per cup will encourage coffee drinkers to carry reusable cups.
The government of Ireland first introduced a tax on plastic bags in year 2002.
Ireland introduced a €0.15 tax in March 2002.
Levied on consumers at the point of sale, this led to 90% of consumers using long-life bags within a year.
This tax geared to change the behavior of consumers while still allowing them to choose if they want to pay an extra fee for plastic bags.
The tax was increased to €0.22 in 2007.
The revenue is put into an Environment Fund, which is to be used for environmental projects; this is a major reason that consumers support this tax.
A research was done to look at how consumers responded to the tax at checkout and 60% were neutral over the cost while 14% of respondent were “positive” to the extra charge and 26% responded negatively.
