Survey ranks Limerick as the most ‘littered’ city centre in the entire country

THE FINAL litter survey of 2023 by group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows both Limerick city centre and Galvone in the category of ‘littered’ in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.

The two areas were both ranked in the top ten most littered cities/towns in Ireland.

Limerick city centre was ranked as the most littered city centre in the entire country according to the An Taisce report - IBAL Anti-Litter League, it was ranked 38 out of the 40 towns and cities.

For the first time since the survey began 20 years ago, no area was deemed seriously littered, with Maynooth claiming top spot for cleanliness.

IBAL says the impending Deposit Return Scheme will improve cleanliness levels further nationwide but is calling for action on coffee cups.

“This is a disappointing result for Dublin and Limerick city centres, given that they both enjoyed ‘clean’ status a few years ago,” IBAL’s Conor Horgan said. “There are many challenges facing our capital city, but clean streets are an important starting point on the path to recovery.”

“There is some good news in our cities, however,” Mr Horgan said.

“For years our worst performing areas were deemed either ‘litter blackspots’ or ‘seriously littered’. This baseline would seem to be changing, with ‘littered’ becoming the bottom tier. Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years,” he added

“We need action on coffee cups,” according to IBAL.

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A surprise finding of the IBAL study was the rise in coffee cup litter, which is now close to peak Covid levels. Coffee cups were found at over 30% of the 500+ sites surveyed.

“We are concerned at potential delays in introducing a coffee cup levy,” Mr Horgan said.

“We believe this action is needed to stamp out a product which is out of step with the circular economy. Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets.”

IBAL says Killarney has benefited from having banned single-use cups last year, a move “embraced” by the community.

There was a significant rise in the prevalence of disposable vapes. These were found in more than 10% of all sites covered.

IBAL is an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity - notably in the areas of tourism, etc - is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment.