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Food

12th Oct 2021

Dublin bakery introduces 15c paper bag levy to tackle waste

Jade Hayden

A big move for the bakery.

A Dublin bakery and café has introduced a 15c levy on paper bags to tackle Ireland’s waste issue.

Popular Pearse Street spot, Bread 41, introduced the charge this month to encourage more people to use less single-use products and to bring their own bags for takeaway goods.

Owner and baker Eoin Cluskey said that sustainability is as important as ever, and that even though paper bags are not as damaging as plastic ones, they still place a strain on the environment which could easily be avoided.

Cluskey said: “Since the plastic bag levy came into play, the number of plastic bags bought decreased by 90%. Now it’s time for all single use paper bags to follow accordingly.”

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He went on: “We are face-to-face with a climate crisis and we each need to recognise our responsibility as businesses and individuals and take a stand and to stop being a part of the problem.”

This comes after Bread 41 introduced a ‘No Cup, No Coffee’ initiative prior to the pandemic to tackle single-use coffee cups.

A plastic bag levy was introduced in Ireland in 2002, leading to a massive 90% decrease in use of single-use plastic bags, with one million of these bags removed from circulation.