THE NUMBER OF areas around the country deemed littered is at its lowest level in five years, according to the group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). 

The survey of 40 towns and cities, which is carried out by the environment NGO An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, found that two-thirds of towns were clean overall, an increase on last year. 

Naas topped the ranking for the second year in a row, ahead of Ennis and Killarney.

However, the IBAL survey said that while Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors, the capital’s North Inner City and Cork Northside have both “deteriorated”. 

Cork Northside fell to “seriously littered”, while Dublin’s North Inner City, also seriously littered, came out at the bottom of the survey. Only two of the 25 sites surveyed in the area warranted a clean grade – the lowest number in years.

“Considerable improvements” were noted at some Dublin sites previously deemed as heavily littered, including Middle Abbey Street, O’Connell Street, North Frederick Street and beside the Jervis Luas.

Among the litter blackspots found were Spencer Dock, which suffered from dumping of household items; Dorset Lane, where large black sacks, a mattress and clothing items were strewn about; and the environs of the Royal Canal, where sacks of rubbish and other miscellaneous items, including some tents, featured among the litter.

It said that dumping on Dominic Lane and a littered basement on Parnell Square prevented Dublin from attaining “clean” status.

IBAL IBAL

“Unfortunately litter was everywhere in the North Inner City, in stark contrast to the City Centre just a few streets away,” IBAL’s Conor Horgan said. 

Horgan said the negative impact of waste collection by bags instead of bins “appears greater than ever”.

He added that there would likely be “no progress” in the North Inner City without a ban on bags, and called on Dublin City Council to convert the city to bin collection services. 

Businesses in Dublin city centre will be banned from leaving their waste in plastic bags for collection from 16 September.

The top nine places in Ireland that were deemed “cleaner than European norms” are as follows, and in this order: Naas, Ennis, Killarney, Leixlip, Monaghan, Sligo, Tullamore, Waterford City and Wicklow.

Deposit Return Scheme

Only four areas were branded littered or seriously littered overall, including Ballybane in Galway and Tallaght in Dublin. 

An Taisce inspectors found the environs of Dublin Airport, which are “normally clean”, to be moderately littered. Ballymun, Carlow, Fermoy, Longford and Navan were also among some of the areas found to be moderately littered. 

The survey noted that plastic bottle and can litter is down 50% on previous levels, a year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme. 

However, it said this kind of litter was still found in 20% of the 500-plus sites surveyed across the country.

“We hope that the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter, but statistics so far do not bear this out,” Horgan said, adding that cans and plastic bottles “are far from a rare sight on our streets and in our hedgerows”. 

The survey also found that the prevalence of coffee cups on streets across the country remains stubbornly high. 

But there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter. Last year, Cabinet approved draft legislation to ban the sale of disposable vapes in Ireland. 

A ban on selling the products in Northern Ireland and the UK came into effect on 1 June.