The first national litter survey of 2024 by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows Naas regaining the title of cleanest town in the ranking of 40 towns and cities.
Last year’s winner Maynooth, meanwhile, is again ‘cleaner than European norms’, but slips to 14th position.
The study reveals an overall improvement in litter levels, and a decrease in cans and plastic bottles on our streets on foot of the Deposit Return Scheme.
The An Taisce report for Naas stated:
With a blemish-free report card, Naas has managed to sustain, indeed improve on, the great work of recent years.
Naas has certainly come a long way compared to a number of years ago – this didn’t happen overnight and is very much the result of a sustained community effort – well done to all concerned. With so many top-ranking sites, a few deserve a mention.
Moat Mall was exceptionally well presented and maintained; Well Lane & Well had some lovely illustrative signage;
The Canal Bank & Environs were very much deserving of the top litter grade – the former derelict building has been earmarked for ‘Age Friendly Apartments’ – this should further enhance the overall appearance of the area.
The An Taisce report for Maynooth stated:
A strong result for the IBAL 2023 winner with over half of the surveyed sites getting the top litter grade. Court House Square is a lovely town centre environment and the residential area of Moyglare Manor was exceptionally freshly presented and maintained. While there were a number of moderately littered areas, the site which really brought down Maynooth’s overall ranking was the Recycle Facility at Tesco – there was litter / dumping between the units, much of it ‘long-lie’ indicating a lack of thorough cleaning for quite some time.
The study, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, showed a healthy rise in towns reaching the upper tier of cleanliness – ‘Cleaner than European Norms’ – and a fall of 35% in the number of towns branded ‘littered’. Naas finished ahead of Monaghan and new entrant Blanchardstown. Ballybane in Galway slipped to bottom of the rankings.
“Our study paints a much better picture than a few years ago, with levels of cleanliness definitely rising,” says IBAL’s Conor Horgan. “Once again, no town was judged to be either a ‘litter blackspot’ or ‘heavily littered’ – that’s real progress.”
City areas fared well, with notable improvements in Limerick City, Mahon in Cork, Tallaght and North Dublin Inner City. Limerick South (Galvone) recorded its best ever result. Dublin City Centre, however, showed a fall in cleanliness on last year.
Fewer cans, plastic bottles
There was a near-30% fall in the prevalence of can-related litter since the previous survey. While plastic bottles were also less common than in any past survey, they remain the third most prevalent form of litter on our streets.
“It’s early days and we’re still seeing too many plastic bottles on our streets, but we can expect further improvement as people become accustomed to the Deposit Return Scheme and the legacy non-returnable items are flushed out of the system. Ultimately, we should see can and plastic bottle litter disappear entirely.
“These initial results indicate that if there’s a monetary incentive to do the right thing, people will respond. The same logic applies to a coffee cup levy. Tackling specific litter types with tailored measures is the most effective way of ridding our streets of litter. We concede that it’s an inconvenience for people but that’s a price we must pay.”
Coffee cups, while down, were present in 1 of every 5 sites surveyed. Unlike in some countries, the Return Scheme does not include beer bottles, which were found in 10% of sites. “Is there a good reason why we cannot go further and make these bottles returnable also?” asks Horgan.
“It is disappointing that we see no progress in the development of degradable chewing gum. Across a swathe of industries, companies are adapting their products and packaging in the interests of the environment, but there seems to be no impetus for gum manufacturers to take such a step. As a result their products lie on our streets for decades and decades.”
Cigarette butt litter remains stubbornly high, present in 31% of the 500+ sites surveyed.