Waterford is again Ireland's cleanest city in the latest IBAL survey.
It's come in 15th in the survey of 40 towns and cities.
Naas County Kildare has come out on top.
Ballybeg, which had been deemed 'littered' in the the October 2021 survey, is now 'clean' and takes the 23rd spot in the rankings.
An Taisce comments on Waterford
The An Taisce report for Waterford City stated:
Waterford City is a consistently highly ranking city and this time around it has excelled. Almost all of the city centre sites were top ranking – these included Broad Street / Barronstrand, Lady Lane, Viking Quarter / Medieval Quarter and both the Bus Eireann Station and Plunkett Train Station – the latter two created a very good first impression of the city and this high standard was sustained for many of the remaining sites.
The report went on to say that the People’s Park and Waterford Nature Park are "wonderful green spaces which have been particularly well presented and maintained"
The grounds of Waterford Courthouse were deemed spotless and SETU (formerly WIT) was "very much deserving of the top litter grade."
Other top ranking sites included Waterford Retail Park and the Hyper Centre.
An Taisce said "by far the most heavily littered site was a miscellaneous site at the Bridge (diagonally across from Plunkett Station) this time around it wasn’t just casually littered but subject to dumping."
IBAL and Ballybeg
A hugely improved overall result for the area of Ballybeg. The fact that ‘Ryan’s’ has been demolished (formerly and frequently a litter blackspot) has made a big difference, combined with the Miscellaneous site beside St. Saviour’s GAA not being quite as poor as previous surveys has made a big difference. The Bring Facility at Tesco was also significantly improved compared to previous surveys."
As a general note, An Taisce said there had been extensive grass cutting throughout the area and the ‘grass cutter’ was observed carefully removing litter with a litter picker.
Overall results of IBAL League
Two-thirds of the 40 towns and cities surveyed were found to be clean, with Letterkenny and Cavan coming in behind Naas in the top three.
Overall litter levels showed a decrease on last year, with a dramatic fall of 50% in the number of sites within towns deemed to be ‘litter blackspots’.
There was further improvement for Limerick South (Galvone), which had been a ‘litter blackspot’ at the foot of the table for years, it was again deemed ‘littered’, while Dublin’s North Inner City recovered from ‘litter blackspot’ status last time to record one of its best results.
“We’ve been calling on local authorities to prioritise the very bad sites in a town or area and it seems this call has been heeded,” comments IBAL spokesperson Conor Horgan. “We see the benefits especially in urban areas, where very heavy littering and dumping was at its worst. It’s early days, but there are signs that the disadvantaged areas we have focussed on are finally coming good, albeit from a low base.”
Problems with coffee cups
The study reveals PPE litter is on the decrease, but the prevalence of coffee cups on our streets warrants action such as a levy, says IBAL.
“The findings bear out the need for action on coffee cups,” contends Mr Horgan. “We must disincentivise the use of paper cups – even compostable or recyclable ones – as too many of them are ending up on the ground. In the light of our survey, the Government move towards a levy makes a lot of sense.”
Litter levels returning to normality post Covid
The survey suggests that Ireland is seeing a return to normality post-Covid, due to cleaning schedules back to normal, less PPE litter and less alcohol consumption outdoors.
