Eibhlin’s Diary: Cup half full

I was recently at the launch of IRD Duhallow’s Circular Cups for Community Events project, one with the potential to be another great moment for community-led circular solutions across Ireland. 

The event, officiated by Minister of State for the Circular Economy, Alan Dillon TD (pictured), was full of optimism, and rightly so. What IRD Duhallow and its partners have launched will help to significantly reduce single-use plastics at community events throughout the Southern Region.

Festivals and small community events have long struggled to move away from single use plastics, not due to lack of willingness, but due to the sheer cost, logistics, and infrastructure required for reusable systems. IRD Duhallow’s new social enterprise answers that challenge.

The project provides durable reusable cups in pint, half pint, and hot drink sizes, (all of which can be washed and reused up to 300 times) for the Southern Waste Region’s participating local authorities including Carlow, Clare, Cork City & County, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford . The specially commissioned washer-dryer system and storage infrastructure at IRD Duhallow ensures communities can now access a fully supported system that is both convenient and affordable.

As someone who works closely with community groups every day, I can see the potential in this. Instead of single-use cups piling up at local events, festivals, matches, or family days, groups can now opt into a circular system that reduces waste while saving organisers time, money, and stress.

As highlighted at the event, Ireland still consumes an estimated 200 million single use plastic cups annually. Public events, no matter how small, contribute significantly to that figure. 

Hearing Anne Maria Bourke, vice chair of IRD Duhallow,  and others speak about the initiative’s development and ambition made the significance of the project really sink in. This is the first scheme of its kind in Ireland, a regional, social enterprise driven reusable cup service that directly supports local authorities and grassroots organisers. The team has created a model that doesn’t just tackle waste, it supports behaviour change and makes sustainability accessible for communities across Ireland.

With the project set to roll out across all nine local authorities in the Southern Region from 12 January, 2026, this is exactly the type of practical, scalable, community focused circular innovation that we at Circular.ie want to highlight nationally. It fits with our belief that local action drives national change.

Walking away from the launch, I felt genuinely excited. The energy in the room, the partnerships involved, the ambition of the project everything suggested that this will become a model replicated far beyond the Southern Region.

Most importantly, this initiative gives local groups a convenient, affordable, ready to go solution. No more mountains of single-use cups; no more barriers to doing the right thing.

Just circularity in action.

Congratulations to IRD Duhallow and all partners involved. This project is a testament to what’s possible when community, innovation, and sustainability come together.