The first post-lockdown survey by Irish Business Against Litter shows Galway City Centre improving to ‘Clean’ status in 19th position in the ranking of 40 areas nationwide.
The report however criticised Ballybane, which is now deemed ‘littered’ in 35th spot, down from 26th last year. While the majority of our towns have cleaned up over the past 12 months, litter in our main cities has worsened to levels not seen in ten years.
The An Taisce report for Galway City Centre stated that in contrast to most of our main city centres, this was a very strong performance for Galway City, with no very heavily littered sites.
There was disappointment though that the centrepiece of the city, Eyre Square was seen as the location of much littering.
“Top-ranking sites included NUIG Campus (frequently a very good site ), the Cathedral Car Park, Canal Walk – Nun’s Island to Millennium Park, IDA Galway Business Park and St Nicholas Church environs – these were not just good regarding litter but very well presented and maintained. Disappointingly, Eyre Square was littered,” the report stated.
The An Taisce report for Ballybane stated that after an improvement last time, there was a disappointing drop in cleanliness in Ballybane, with only three top ranking sites and two litter blackspots.
“Previously highlighted as a litter blackspot, Ballybane village was heavily littered to the front; but to the rear of the buildings there was significant dumping of all manner of large household items.
“The communal areas of Ballybane Industrial Estate presented very poorly – an air of neglect prevailed throughout, along with heavy levels of a wide variety of long-lie litter,” they stated/
The number of areas deemed clean by An Taisce, who carry out the survey on behalf of IBAL, rose from 17 to 23. In all, 68% of towns showed an improvement on last year. Portlaoise, which was at the very foot of the table back in 2010, topped the rankings, ahead of Leixlip and past winner Ennis.
IBAL’s Conor Horgan said that with local authority cleaning schedules normalising again and volunteer groups re-engaged in clean-ups across the country, our towns are almost as clean as two years ago.
“This is still some way short of where they were in 2014, however. By contrast, the majority of urban areas fared worse than in 2020, among them Dublin, Cork and Limerick City Centres, which were all deemed ‘littered’.
“For cities, this survey paints a bleak picture. Litter levels have worsened to a level we have not seen in the past ten years. Now that we have emerged from lockdown, we cannot use it as an excuse for high levels of litter.
“As we invest in promotional drives and build city hotels in anticipation of more visitors, we need to be mindful of the littered environment we are presenting to them.”
For the first time since 2014, Dublin’s North Inner City was deemed a litter blackspot. Of the 25 sites in the area surveyed, only two were found to be clean, and 17 were ‘heavily littered’ or worse.
The study also showed a near-30% increase in the prevalence of PPE masks on our streets and an increase in alcohol-related litter such as cans and bottles.
“The need for PPE has not abated – unfortunately we’re still using disposable masks, we’re still dropping them at an alarming rate and they are still not being picked up,“ says Conor Horgan. “We are consuming more outdoors and this is translating into more food- and drink-related litter.”
Despite this, the survey showed a 20% drop in coffee cup litter. There was also a steep fall-off in cigarette butts.
IBAL was once again critical of the failure of local authorities to address sites which they have previously highlighted as heavily littered, especially in urban areas. Of the 103 such sites exposed last year, fewer than half have been cleaned up in 2021.
