A fall in plastic bottles and cans on the streets, brought about by the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS ), was not enough to reduce overall litter levels in Ireland last year. That is the finding of business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL ), whose latest survey of 40 towns and cities shows Galway city centre is “cleaner than European norms”.
The An Taisce report for Galway city centre stated: "An exceptionally good result for Galway city with 19 of the 25 sites surveyed getting the top litter grade - there were no litter blackspots.
"This great result puts Galway city the top-ranking city in the IBAL Anti-Litter league. Top-ranking sites include a variety of residential areas including Lurgan Park, Béal Taoid; Lakeshore Drive Playground, all aspects were in very good order; University of Galway campus, an extensive environment which was freshly presented and maintained; Library at Westside, had some colourful and welcoming features and was very good with regards to litter; there was a complete absence of litter at Corrib Rangers Boys Academy.
The An Taisce report for Ballybane, who ranked as "littered", stated: "The presence of five top-ranking sites has nudged Ballybane up the litter league – however, there were still two litter blackspots, stubbornly so – Ballybane Village and Ballybane Industrial Estate.
"The latter has been a little blackspot on numerous previous IBAL surveys – where does responsibility for the cleaning of communal areas lie? Ballybane Road presented well, and Ballybane Road Shopping Centre and Community Organic Garden were all deserving of the top litter grade."
On a positive note, 2024 saw a further fall in the number of sites within cities and towns that were deemed ‘litter blackspots’, which suggests that local authorities were generally more effective in tackling urban dumping and in addressing sites that IBAL had previously highlighted.
The survey finally revealed a near 50 per cent fall in the prevalence of plastic bottles and cans in the 500 plus sites monitored since the Deposit Return Scheme was introduced last year.
