IBAL survey: 'Another strong result for Mullingar'
Midlands towns come good as litter survey shows cleaner towns await summer visitors
The latest survey from business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) Mullingar and Athlone are both clean and have improved in the rankings, and Tullamore is again ‘Clean to European Norms’ and inside the top 10 in the ranking of 40 towns and cities across Ireland. Portlaoise has slipped one place to 20th but is still deemed clean.
The An Taisce report for Mullingar stated: “Another strong result for Mullingar, which had several top ranking sites deserving of special mention. The main shopping thoroughfare of Pearse Street, Oliver Plunkett Street was excellent with regards to litter, with lovely planter boxes and paving.
“Mullingar Town Park was exceptionally freshly presented and maintained and spotless throughout. The town centre car park – Blackhall was adorned by a colourful mural of people and items of historic note.
“By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was the canal path, primarily due to alcohol related litter in the water and a bag of rubbish, the contents of which were strewn on the ground.”
The An Taisce report for Athlone stated: “A very solid performance by Athlone with six out of the 10 sites surveyed getting the top litter grade. These included Ballymahon Approach Road, The Strand and Athlone Town Centre and Environs – the latter was a very worthy Grade A site. By far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Athlone was the Vacant Property on Southern Station Road (close to Bus Eireann) – not only was it heavily littered, but it also presents poorly.”
The An Taisce report for Tullamore stated: “An exceptional result for Tullamore, with seven out of the ten survey sites getting the top litter grade and no heavily littered ones. Examples of top ranking sites included ‘Tullamore Food Fayre’ at Kilcruttin Business Park, Main Street and Grand Canal Way at Lock 27 – the latter is a lovely waterside environment where further enhancement works are taking place.”
The An Taisce report for Portlaoise stated: “A very solid performance by Portlaoise with six out of the ten sites getting the top litter grade – these included the Main Street, Glass / Bottle Bank at Council Buildings and Pairc An Phobail – all were well presented and excellent with regards to litter. By far the most heavily littered sites were the residential area of Carmody Way and Harpur’s Lane and Environs – both need attention to prevent further deterioration.”
Overall, two thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. Only 4 areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number on 5 years. Both Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors.
“It is encouraging to see that our main city centres – Dublin and Cork – have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country. Clean streets are imperative, given the challenges facing Ireland as a high-cost destination,” says IBAL’s Conor Horgan
Dublin’s North Inner City, seriously littered, remains rooted to the foot of the rankings.
Conor Horgan comments: “No progress is likely in the North Inner City without a ban on bags. We need the Council to come good on its intention to convert the entire city to bin collection services. In addition, it is high time that appropriate legal changes were brought into effect to allow the council to pursue those responsible for littered basements, an age-old blight on our Capital City.”
One year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50% on previous levels but was still found in 20% of the 500-plus sites surveyed across the country. “We hope that the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter, but statistics so far do not bear this out. Cans and plastic bottles are far from a rare sight on our streets and in our hedgerows,” says Conor Horgan.
While the prevalence of coffee cups on our streets remains stubbornly high, there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter. The UK and Northern Ireland outlawed disposable vapes earlier this month and a ban here is likely in the coming months.
The survey found the main streets of towns to be generally clean, as were heritage and amenity sites. Residential areas, bus and train stations and recycle facilities were most likely to be littered.