The latest litter survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter has found Tramore beach and the River Suir at Waterford City to be both deemed 'moderately littered', the latter improving from 'heavily littered' this time last year.
While the majority of our towns are clean, our beaches and waterways are not, according to the study.
Of the 42 areas surveyed across the country, only in 1 in 6 areas achieved a 'clean' rating, while 14% were classed as 'littered' or 'heavily littered'.
Beaches, harbours, rivers and their immediate environs were monitored by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce over the course of the summer. The An Taisce report for Tramore beach stated: There was very little land-based litter, with the beach area well managed. Most of the litter was below the tide line. Along tide line there was quite a lot of marine litter present. Main litter items included sweet papers with lower levels of cans, fast-food wrappers, plastic bottles, coffee cups and other paper items.
The An Taisce report for the River Suir at Waterford city stated: An overall improvement was noted on the survey in 2018 when it was Heavily Littered. The boardwalk area was well presented and generally good with regard to litter. Much of the land-based items were in between the parked cars and the wall by the bus station. The main items were food / sweet wrappers cigarette butts and chewing gum, with lower levels of dog fouling, coffee cups, plastic bottles and plastic bags. Water based items included a couple of bicycles, shopping trolley and two traffic cones as well as plastic bottles, cans, sweet papers and food wrappers.
Once again Salthill emerged as one of the cleanest beaches, alongside Curracloe and Seapoint in Dublin. While Lough Rea and the River Shannon at Carrick-on-Shannon and the Nore in Kilkenny were clean, the Barrow in Carlow town and the Tolka in Dublin were both heavily littered. Cork Harbour near Midleton was once again heavily littered and among the worst areas surveyed.
