Waterford still Ireland's cleanest City

The first post-lockdown survey by Irish Business Against Litter shows Waterford City again to be Ireland’s cleanest. It's in 11^th position in the ranking of 40 areas nationwide.  Waterford also held this spot in 2020. However, it was not good news for Ballybeg, which has dropped to 37^th spot, and is deemed ‘littered’.

Portlaoise emerged as cleanest town.

Bad news for other Irish Cities

Although the majority of  Irish towns have cleaned up over the past 12 months, litter in our main cities has worsened to levels not seen in ten years.  The study found no fall-off in PPE litter across the country.

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’.

All but one of the bottom 10 places in the rankings were occupied by urban areas. “For cities, this survey paints a bleak picture,” comments Conor Horgan.  “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.

The An Taisce Report for Waterford City

In quite a dire survey for most urban centres, Waterford City has managed to improve slightly. A general comment about the presence of the Waterford Walls throughout the city – very much a feature and used to great effect.  Some consistently top-ranking  deserve a special mention e.g. People’s Park (a wonderful resource which is clearly very much respected by the users), Plunkett Train Station (plenty of historical and tourist information, combined with abundant flower arrangements); the Triangle / Medieval Quarter looked very well, with one attraction seamlessly flowing to the next.  A newly included site was Waterford Nature Park / Kilbarry Park (Tramore Road), a beautiful environment, tucked away and very difficult to locate for any visitors.    A Miscellaneous site – Woodpecker – highlighted in previous surveys was by far the most heavily littered site surveyed.  Things have deteriorated even further since last IBAL visit.  Another poor site was a Miscellaneous Site at the bottom of Dock Road, just over the Bridge – heavy accumulations of alcohol and food related items had gathered both behind the fence area and outside. 

The An Taisce report for Ballybeg stated:

Ballybeg has deteriorated sharply since last year, with three litter blackspots. Not long ago this area was deemed Clean to European Norms. The derelict site of ‘Ryan’s’ and the Miscellaneous site beside St Saviour’s GAA club both continue to be a magnet not just for litter but dumping.  Another site off Ardmore Park had suffered from arson, the remnants of which were strewn about, combined with all manner of builders’ rubble. While the main Car Park at Tesco was freshly presented and maintained, the Bring Facility within was in a poor state. 

A drop in areas deemed clean nationwide

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 commented

“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.

Continued Rise in Covid-related litter

The study 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.

2021 is the 19th year of the IBAL Anti-Litter League. You can read more here. 

2021 IBAL ANTI-LITTER LEAGUE – ROUND 1