Athlone has been deemed ‘Clean to European Norms’ in the final 2016 litter survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ), finishing 23rd in total out of 40 towns and cities nationwide.
The latest report gives the residential area of Beechpark West, Main Street and the riverside environment of Wolfe Tone Terrace the top ranking. While Arcadia Retail Park was in excellent order, the report notes that a waste ground area to the rear of the retail park has clearly been abused and neglected for quite some time. Another neglected area in Athlone was the waste ground and laneway near Athlone Mixed National School, where the remains of burnt materials were found.
Some 70 per cent of the towns and cities surveyed were found to be ‘Clean to European Norms’, compared to 85 per cent two years ago. Litter levels rose by 4 per cent during the period. While once again there were no litter blackspots, three urban areas were deemed to be seriously littered – Galvone in Limerick, Farranree in Cork and Dublin’s North Inner City.
“The poor showing by our cities generally goes some way to explaining the overall increase in litter levels,“ says Conor Horgan of IBAL. “Last year all our major cities other than Dublin were clean, this time round the majority are littered.”
“The problem is becoming less about cleaning up after kids have dropped sweet papers on the main street. It’s about people deliberately and covertly evading bin charges by illegally disposing of their rubbish on wasteland or derelict sites, which then become magnets for all sorts of litter. Dumping needs to be higher on the political agenda, as it’s an issue that really matters to people, and to our economy.”
“The good news is that we are nowhere near as littered a nation as we were 15 years ago, when only two towns were ‘Clean to European Norms’. However, we have seen some worrying slippage across both cities and towns. The restructuring of local government and the abolition of town councils may be partly to blame outside of our cities.”
There was a noticeable increase in the prevalence of sweet wrappers, plastic bottles, and cans across all the sites surveyed, with a slight fall-off in cigarette butts, according to the survey.
