Mullingar plummets to 'littered' in IBAL ranking

Mullingar has plummeted down the IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) rankings in what the assessors have described as a “disappointing” result.

The town has fallen from 11th to 33rd place on the list of 37 towns and has been branded “littered” in IBAL’s final litter survey of 2020.

Athlone also slipped, from 2nd to 16th, but is deemed clean, and both Tullamore and Portlaoise have secured Top 5 places in the ranking. Kilkenny retained top spot, ahead of Killarney and Ennis. According to the report, litter levels continue to rise nationwide, with fewer than half of the towns surveyed deemed clean.

The An Taisce report for Mullingar stated: “A very disappointing result for Mullingar , which has slipped dramatically since the previous survey. By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was the car park at Lynn Road Roundabout – heavy levels of a wide variety of litter prevailed around the perimeter of the car park; Seriously littered sites included Carey Bridge / College Street, Recycle Centre at St. Brigid's Terrace and Ashe Road.

“Market House & Environs and Royal Canal Greenway were the only clean sites surveyed, not just good with regard to litter but very well presented and maintained.”

The An Taisce report for Athlone stated: “In common with many other towns, Athlone has slipped, with a couple of quite bad sites halting its progress of recent years. The residential areas of Fairlands and Retreat Avenue were both deserving of the top litter grade. The streetscape along Main Street was excellent, creating a very fresh impression – it was also excellent with regard to litter. By far the most heavily littered site in Athlone was the Batteries Park / Playground – a litter blackspot, it was characterised by large volumes of all manner of litter throughout the grasslands.”

In all, litter levels rose in 24 of the 37 towns and cities inspected by An Taisce at the end of 2020, resulting in only 17 being judged to be clean – a fall of over 25% on last summer and in sharp contrast to just 3 years ago, when 80% were clean.

According to IBAL, the survey results are consistent with a trend in recent years. “The decline in cleanliness is less a case of the poorer areas getting worse, but of previously clean towns slipping to littered,” says IBAL spokesperson Conor Horgan. “Covid is clearly a factor here, but we should never accept litter as inevitable. It comes down to people disposing of their waste without regard for their surroundings or their fellow citizens and it is entirely unnecessary.”

One explanation for the rise in litter lies in the restrictions surrounding cleaning services during the pandemic. “While council workers have not been on the streets as much as normal, the general public has been spending more time than ever out of doors,” says Mr Horgan. There was a sharp rise in the amounts of litter on approach roads to towns, reflecting the fact that the benign winter has seen masses of people out walking. “Ironically, too many of them are showing a shameful disregard for the environment they are enjoying.”

PPE litter

Coffee cups were among the most prevalent litter types found, while there was another rise in glass bottles and cans, suggesting that outdoor drinking has not waned over the winter months. The survey also showed that the second half of 2020 brought a further increase in PPE-related litter, primarily masks. “8 months into the pandemic, we would have hoped people would have moved to reusable masks with a resulting fall in mask-related litter. In fact, we are seeing more and more of them ending up our streets,” says Mr Horgan.

Heavily littered sites ‘getting worse’

The report highlighted a continued rise in the number of blackspots in towns and cities. IBAL was once again critical of the failure of local authorities to address sites that had been identified in previous surveys as heavily littered. 36 such sites were revisited in this latest survey, yet only 11% were found to have been cleaned up and more than a quarter had actually worsened.

Reluctance to pick up litter

According to IBAL, the reluctance among civic-minded people to pick up litter during the pandemic may carry long term consequences. “While people have certainly become more attuned to their natural surroundings and more conscious of how litter can spoil those surroundings, this is offset by an understandable unwillingness to pick up waste for fear of contamination. As the pandemic endures, and with it the sensitivity around touching items, people may simply get out of the habit of picking up other people’s litter. We risk losing a civic behaviour which is vital in keeping our country clean.” concludes Mr Horgan.