Limerick city 'moderately littered' despite improvements in latest IBAL survey

LIMERICK city has dropped slightly in the latest litter rankings published by business group Irish Business Against Litter.

While there has been some improvement, the survey shows Limerick city has dropped to 33rd position out of the 40 towns and cities surveyed.

According to IBAL, the city was found to be ‘moderately littered’ when the survey was carried out. Galvone, meanwhile, is also moderately littered and is ranked in 35th spot.

The great majority of Ireland’s towns were found to be clean, but two-thirds of city areas are still littered.

A spokesperson for An Taisce, which carries out the surveys for IBAL, commented: “Limerick City’s performance was an improvement on six months ago, but still short of where it needs to be, with not enough clean sites. The absence of litter blackspots was a positive."

The report notes the revitalisation works that have taken place at O'Connell Street and says they saw it attract the top litter grade.

'Significant improvements to road / paving and general streetscape have taken place over the last while and this has resulted in a much fresher environment overall,'' reads the report which found that People’s Park in the city centre is well-cared for by those responsible for its maintenance.

Major improvements were noted at a premises at Mallow Street (numbers 6 and 7) which had been a seriously littered site in previous IBAL surveys but not so, this time around.

Notable improvements were also recorded at Thomondgate and at Nicholas Street where the condition of the paving was "particularly fresh looking".

Lanes at High Street also much better than previous surveys and the provision of ‘recycle’ street bins right beside the regular street bins (at William Street and Clancy Strand) were noted. 

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According to the judges, Galvone is "inching its way up the IBAL litter league" with steady improvements over the years. 

Four of the sites surveyed got the top litter grade, with three just missing it. The ‘Bring Facility’ at Roxboro Shopping Centre was freshly presented but subject to huge levels of dumping and abuse. 

"Galvone Business Park / Industrial Estate was not quite as heavily littered compared to previous IBAL surveys but was still a poor one," reads the report which also noted the illegal dumping of an "industrial scale" at the Childers Road Vehicle Weigh Station.

Outside of Limerick, Waterford and Galway were described as the only "clean" cities.

In general, the IBAL survey showed that PPE litter has not disappeared entirely, with masks found in 7% of sites. There was a slight drop in the prevalence of alcohol cans and bottles, but coffee cups were present in 20% of sites, which, IBAL maintains, backs up the need for a coffee cup levy.  There was an increase in cigarette butt litter.

Vaping devices were included as a litter type for the first time and were evident in 6% of sites.

“The impact of disposable vapes is twofold,” said Conor Horgan of IBAL.

"Not only are they single-use plastic, but the lithium battery within them is an especially toxic form of litter. Unfortunately, as is our experience with coffee cups, consumers tend to opt for the convenience of the disposable product. In striving for a circular economy, the case for banning them is a strong one," he added.