Kilkenny’s retained its position as cleanest of 40 towns and cities nationwide while Carlow’s dropped further in the rankings.
That’s according to the latest report from Irish Business Against Litter.
It’s the first nationwide survey by the group since the Covid-19 crisis began & it showed PPE litter to be widespread with a rise in the prevalence of cans and glass bottles.
An Taisce, who carried out the poll, deemed 23 towns to be ‘clean’, a fall of over 20% on last year. The number of towns reaching the highest cleanliness level, Cleaner than European Norms, dropped by a quarter to nine.
While Kilkenny came out tops yet again leading that category, Carlow has been deemed moderately littered & sits in 33rd position of the 40..
The report also outlines “Little change to note in Carlow, which remains one of the most littered towns surveyed. There were five top ranking sites but the presence of two very poor sites very much brings down the overall ranking. Four Lakes Retail Park was excellent in terms of presentation and litter, very fresh clean and welcoming. This is in sharp contrast to the Recycle Facility within which wasn’t just casually littered but subject to dumping. Another very poor site in Carlow was the Car Park and surrounds at Mr Price Branded Bargains – it was in a very poor state, most notably the litter accumulations along the bank adjacent to the river. An abandoned site on Mill Lane had been used as a dumping ground when surveyed in 2019 – this was no longer the case. The residential area of ‘The Orchards’ was excellent in terms of presentation and litter, with lovely mature planting throughout”.
IBAL’s Conor Horgan notes “The rise in litter levels this year is across the board, the Covid crisis has seen more dumping, more outdoor socialising, especially drinking, and PPE litter, but less cleaning by local authorities and less activity by volunteers like Tidy Towns – a perfect storm, in many ways, which has brought us to the worst position we’ve been in in over 10 years.”
The findings also show that in the fight against Covid-19, local authorities have curtailed cleaning schedules and diverted resources to other areas. At the same time, households have been generating more litter during lockdown and there has been a visible increase in drinking outdoors as pubs are closed, a fact borne out by the rise in bottles and cans found by the An Taisce inspectors, Galway City being one example. However, there was a reduction in cigarette butts, perhaps also a reflection of pubs and offices being closed. Half of all recycle facilities surveyed were heavily littered, another likely consequence of the Covid crisis.
PPE litter was prevalent across the country, with masks 5 times as common as gloves. “Understandably, people are reluctant to pick up these items for fear of contracting Covid, so they tend to stay on the ground. We need to see a rapid rise in the use of reusable masks,” says Conor Horgan.
The number of very bad sites within towns explained the overall deterioration in cleanliness and he adds “It is a source of particular frustration that those sites which we had identified last year as heavily littered were – for the most part – not cleaned up in the interim.” Of 61 sites described as either heavily littered or blackspots in 2019, fewer than 40% were clean in this latest survey. “We’ve been saying for years that the most immediate way to improve a town or city is to focus on the bad areas – clearly this is not being done.”
“In these exceptional times, when councils’ resources are stretched, civic responsibility is called for more than ever,” says Conor Horgan, adding “The mantra ‘we’re all in this together’ extends to the proper disposal of waste, not least waste that is prone to contamination. With fewer people available or willing to pick up litter, the message has to be ‘don’t litter in the first place.’”
