Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 76.52
Liaison Maria Kirrane
Submission Date July 28, 2022

STARS v2.2

University College Cork - National University of Ireland, Cork
IN-32: Single-Use Plastic Ban

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Maria Kirrane
Sustainability Officer
Office of the Director of Buildings and Estates
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution banned or eliminated the on-site sales and distribution of at least one type of single-use disposable plastic?:
Yes

A brief description of the single-use disposable plastics that have been banned or eliminated:

All UCC restaurant outlets have pledged to become plastic free by September 2022 ahead of its pledge to achieve this by 2023, by working collaboratively across the whole university and the introduction of UCC's Single-Use Plastics Policy.
The policy covers SUPs sold by UCC’s suppliers and subsidiary companies and any market stalls permitted to trade on UCC campus. Laboratory SUPs are being addressed through the UCC Green Labs programme. The items covered by this policy include:
- Single-Use beverage containers i.e. coffee cups, drinks cups etc.
- Single-Use salad containers/lunch boxes
- Single-Use plastic cutlery
- Single-Use plastic bottles (e.g. for water/ soft drinks)
- Further SUP items may be added to this list at a later date by the SUP Action Group, and it will be clearly communicated to all relevant stakeholders where applicable
A SUP or disposable item is defined as one that is designed to be used by the consumer once and disposed of thereafter. Given the current situation regarding postconsumer management of compostable/biodegradeable waste, the policy includes compostable and biodegradeable cups as an SUP.
It is proposed that:
- By the 1st September 2022, SUPS will have been completely phased out of all UCC Restaurants and Catering Services.
- By the 1st January 2023, SUPs will have been completely phased out of UCC shops and vending services.

In addition UCC's Biosciences Institute is Ireland’s first single-use plastic free cafe both in the kitchen and customer facing. All plastic drink bottles have been removed from the café and have been replaced with glass bottles and cans. Customers won’t find any plastic sachets of sauces, disposal cutlery, or plastic wrapped snacks. Everything from bread to cooked meats to salad leaves arrives from local suppliers in re-usable containers. There are no drinks in plastic bottles and no crisp packets, and the disposable, takeaway containers or coffee cups are made from compostable and come with a surcharge. The café has an integrated water fountain system with built-in washing capability for students and staff to use.
Already UCC staff and students are banned from taking disposable coffee cups into the library as part of the Green Library campaign. To support this transition, discounts are available at outlets across campus when students/staff bring reusable mugs.
The Boole Library has a “binless” office system . The system has seen all small bins removed from every floor, in both the student and staff areas, and two large recycling centres put in place in the ground floor. Up to 10,000 plastic bags are diverted from landfill each year as a result.


Website URL where information about the single-use disposable plastic ban(s) is available:
https://www.ucc.ie/en/greencampus/practice/recycling-and-waste-management/#:~:text=In%20January%202019%2C%20the%20the,use%20plastic%20free%20by%202023.

Additional documentation to support the submission:
UCC_SUP_Policy_24-5-22.docx

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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