Mullingar in top five in 2023 IBAL rankings

The final litter survey of 2023 by business group Irish Business Against Litter shows Mullingar in fifth spot – a record high – in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.

Portlaoise and Tullamore, both ‘clean’, climb to 18th and 23rd respectively, while Athlone remains in 22nd. Maynooth claiming the top spot,

For the first time since surveys began 20 years ago, no area was deemed ‘seriously littered’.

IBAL say the impending Deposit Return Scheme will improve cleanliness levels further and call for action on coffee cups.

The An Taisce report for Mullingar stated:

An excellent result for Mullingar with nine out of the 10 sites getting the top litter grade. There were no heavily littered sites – even the Canal Bank, which had been heavily littered in the previous surveys, was much improved. All aspects of Mullingar Train Station (interior and exterior) were in good order and the whole area was very much deserving of the top litter grade.

The An Taisce report for Athlone stated:

With only one heavily littered site, Athlone would be further up the IBAL table if minor improvements were made to its many moderately littered sites. The residential area of Beechpark, Arcadia Retail Park and L1483 Plunkett Road approach were all in very good order. Athlone Train Station, The Golden Island Recycle Centre (a much-improved site compared to just a few years ago) and the River Walk just missed out. By far the most heavily littered site was Athlone Bus Station – much of the litter appeared ‘long-lie’, indicating a lack of thorough cleaning for quite some time.

The An Taisce report for Tullamore stated:

With so many top-ranking sites in Tullamore, there are a few which deserve special mention. The residential area of The Hawthorns wasn’t just excellent with regards to litter but very freshly presented and maintained; O’Connor Square is a lovely town centre environment where great care has been taken with the presentation of the streetscape e.g., paving, planting, seating, etc. and it was exceptionally clean site. Improvements were noted at Lock 27 on Canal Walk but the derelict site continues to attract litter, bringing down the litter grade. By far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Tullamore was the Recycle Bring Centre on Daingean Road – it had been subject to dumping, as was ‘heavily littered’ Offaly Street.

The An Taisce report for Portlaoise stated:

A strong performance by Portlaoise, with just one heavily littered site, at Mountain View Estate, which was noted in previous IBAL surveys. There are some top-ranking sites which were not just very good with regards to litter but in overall presentation and maintenance e.g. the R445 from M7 (creating a very positive first impression of the town), Main Street and Market Square – the latter was attractively laid out with lovely paving at the bicycle parking area and some colourful hanging baskets.

While litter levels rose slightly nationwide, more than 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean in 2023, and Maynooth edged out Mallow and much improved Sligo to take the title of cleanest town.

Waterford was again our cleanest city, ahead of Galway. These were the only cities to be judged ‘clean’. Cork City Centre improved to ‘moderately littered’ but Dublin fell to ‘littered’, alongside Limerick.

“There is some good news in our cities, however,” says Conor Horgan. “For years our worst performing areas were deemed either ‘litter blackspots’ or ‘seriously littered’. This baseline would seem to be changing, with ‘littered’ becoming the bottom tier. Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years.”

Coffee cups

A surprise finding of the IBAL study was the rise in coffee cup litter, which is now close to peak-Covid levels. Coffee cups were found at more than 30% of the 500+ sites surveyed. “We are concerned at potential delays in introducing a coffee cup levy,” says Conor Horgan. “We believe that action is needed to stamp out a product which is out of step with the circular economy. Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets.”

IBAL say Killarney has benefited from having banned single-use cups last year, a move embraced by the community.

IBAL welcome the introduction next month of the Deposit Return Scheme as a potential game-changer in the fight against litter, much as the plastic bag levy was. Under the scheme, consumers will pay a deposit of 15 cent on cans and up to 25 cent on plastic bottles, refundable on their return. “This latest survey shows these items to be present in just under half of the hundreds of sites we surveyed. This scheme will remove a large portion of this litter and bring about a significantly cleaner environment in 2024. While there may be some inconvenience for consumers, the prize is a very real, and a very immediate one.”

There was another significant rise in the prevalence of disposable vapes, highlighted previously as an emerging source of litter. These were found in more than 10% of all sites covered.

2023 marked the 21st anniversary of the IBAL Anti-Litter League.