LATEST: Shannonside towns come clean in IBAL summer litter survey

The latest nationwide survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter shows Carrick-on-Shannon, Roscommon town and Longford town are all clean as we enter the peak tourist season. In the ranking of 40 towns and cities, Roscommon and Longford have improved to 16th and 25th positions respectively, with Carrick-on-Shannon in 13th.

The great majority of Ireland’s towns were found to be clean, but two-thirds of city areas are still littered. An Taisce, who carry out the surveys for IBAL, commented:

“A very strong performance by Carrick on Shannon with seven out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and just one seriously littered site. Shannonside Prom / Quay was an exceptionally good site in terms of overall presentation / maintenance and was excellent with regard to litter. All aspects of Costello Memorial Chapel were in very good order, it was spotless throughout. Other top ranking sites included the Main Street and Quays Car Park.

"By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was the R280 Leitrim / Manorhamilton Approach Road – there was significant litter along the grass bank of the stream and within the water itself – this was in sharp contrast to all of the other sites surveyed in Carrick-on-Shannon.

“A very strong result for Roscommon with seven out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade – these included Goff Street, the residential area of Hyde Court, Tesco and the two shopping streets, Goff Street and Main Street – the latter was particularly freshly presented with lovely paving, planter boxes, seating, bollards etc. The two most heavily littered sites are laneways – the laneway at Matrix Gym and Laneway to the rear of Casey’s Circle K and close to Roscommon Fire Station.

“A solid performance for Longford, with half of the sites surveyed getting the top litter grade – these included the car park at Albert Reynolds Peace Park, Mall Walk and Longford Library – the latter deserves a special mention as it was much improved on previous IBAL surveys. Some sites just missed the top litter grade e.g., Bring Facility at Market Square and Longford Bus / Train Station. The most heavily littered site surveyed was the residential area of Harbour Point.”

Over 90% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, compared with just 28% of city areas. Maynooth won out ahead of Mallow, Kilkenny, Clonmel and Ennis. Dundalk, ‘seriously littered’ at the very foot of the table, and ‘moderately littered’ Tralee, were the sole towns to miss out on clean status.

Waterford and Galway were once again our only clean cities. Cork City Centre, Mahon, Limerick City and Galvone have all made some progress, as has Ballymun. Dublin City Centre, however, has deteriorated from ‘moderately littered’ to ‘littered’.

“Clearly, tourism is a focus of this annual summer survey and unfortunately the major urban gateways to our towns and countryside – notably Dublin – are falling short of the mark, and creating an underwhelming first impression for visitors,“ according to Conor Horgan of IBAL.

“As a high-cost destination, tourists to Ireland can expect better. It’s a fact, too, that the great work being done in our towns is negated by litter in our cities.”

PPE disappearing, vapes on the rise

The survey showed that PPE litter has not disappeared entirely, with masks found in 7% of sites. There was a slight drop in the prevalence of alcohol cans and bottles, but coffee cups were present in 20% of sites, which, IBAL maintains, backs up the need for a coffee cup levy. There was an increase in cigarette butt litter.

Vaping devices were included as a litter type for the first time and were evident in 6% of sites. “The impact of disposable vapes is twofold,” say Conor Horgan.” Not only are they single-use plastic, but the lithium battery within them is an especially toxic form of litter. Unfortunately, as is our experience with coffee cups, consumers tend to opt for the convenience of the disposable product. In striving for a circular economy, the case for banning them is a strong one.”