Abi O'Callaghan-Platt

And we must remember that the Single Use Plastics Directive and the plans for the Latte Leffe was prompted on the back of the public response to David Attenborough's Blue Planet back in 2017.

There was a massive public outcry looking at, you know, seabirds feeding their chicks plastic.

And this is what the Single Use Plastics Directive arose out of as a response to this.

And so it's so disappointing to see that we are not following through on any of these actions.

Well, I suppose the litter levels will continue.

You know, there's nothing really prompting people to make a significant change.

I think it will have a really big impact on the local community resource initiatives that have sprung up around the country.

You know, there's been a number of these.

We know about, obviously, the Kalani Cup and there's been the Fingal Cup in Malahide and Russia and another initiative.

a few other examples around the country.

And all of these were put in place under the understanding that a levy would be introduced.

And, you know, by not going through with this levy, it's taking from these is they're more likely to fail if they don't have the political backing, the legislative backing to continue.

Yes, so the Commission has taken infringement proceedings against Ireland for failure to fully transpose the single-use plastics directive.

So there's a number of things that haven't taken place, such as the funding of awareness-raising initiatives and funding clean-up costs, and of course, as we're speaking about now this morning, measures to achieve a reduction in single-use plastic cups and food containers by 2026.

So we've written a letter to the Irish government, to Dara O'Brien and Alan Dillon, calling on them to transpose and put into place all of the requirements under the single-use plastics directive within the timeframe that's being given to them of two months.

Yes, so the requirements for reuse for takeaway food and beverages as well under the packaging and packaging and waste regulation is coming down the line for February 2028.

And so we need to look at ways to

put reuse systems in place in Ireland.

But there are good examples of this working in other countries.

So in Denmark, in Copenhagen and Aarhus, they have on-street collection points, just like we have with DRS with our return for our cans and bottles.