Disappointment for Longford town as it loses ‘clean status’ in IBAL litter survey

As 2024 gets underway, there was some disappointing news for Longford in the latest nationwide survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

The final litter survey of 2023 highlights that Longford town, a former winner in the league, has lost its ‘clean’ status, and is ‘moderately littered’ and now occupies 27th position in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.

In the previous survey, published on Monday, June 25, 2023, Longford was deemed to be 'Clean to European Norms' and was ranked 25th in the IBAL league table. 

During 2022, the An Taisce report for Longford expressed concern over the 'heavily littered main shopping street' resulting in the town falling twenty-two places, from the 5th position it held in the summer of '22 to 27th by the end of the year.

The final An Taisce report of 2023 for Longford, published this morning, Monday, January 8, 2024, states: "While there was just one seriously littered site surveyed, it was the dearth of top-ranking sites which pushed Longford down the league. 

"A little more care and attention at the moderately littered sites could result in an overall improved result for a former winner of the IBAL league."

2023 marked the 21st anniversary of the IBAL Anti-Litter League.

What the An Taisce report for Longford highlighted

N4 Approach: Grade B+ (from Newtownforbes to Charlotte Brooke Roundabout)
The overall impression created along this route was generally quite a good one with road surface / markings / signage in good order and an abundance of greenery at Charlotte Brooke roundabout. There were too many random food related items for the top litter grade – with a little extra care and attention this could easily be achieved.

R198 Arvagh Approach Road: Grade B
Footpaths / verges were well maintained along this busy approach road. Litter items included plastic bottles, mineral cans, fast-food wrappers, plastic bags, tissue, domestic plastic containers and an abandoned hub cap. No one item was particularly heavy, just a general presence.

Clonbalt Woods / Hazel Grove: Grade A
Attractive entrance signage, nestled amongst half a dozen trees create a lovely first impression in this residential development. The overall impression was a very good one with communal grass spaces / planting in good order and a virtual absence of litter throughout.

R194 Granard Approach: Grade A
Generally, this was a well-maintained route (apart from a recessed area with several potholes). Apart from a couple of very random items, there was a complete absence of litter throughout.

IDA & Templemichael Business Park: Grade B
The individual premises appeared to be well maintained and in good order but there was a definite food related litter presence e.g. plastic bottles, mineral cans, fast-food wrappers, plastic wrapping, along with a bag of household waste. There were no visible litter bins / litter awareness notices. There didn’t appear to be a through road in the business park so the litter must be coming from the users of same.

Templemichael College: Grade A
A freshly presented and well-maintained environment, set in mature grounds. All visible aspects were in very good order and there was barely any litter to be seen throughout.

Longford Shopping Centre: Grade B
The stone planter beds with lovely low-lying planting set in pebbles looked very well. Paving to the front of the stores were in good order. The remainder of the centre didn’t appear as well presented / maintained with the planted areas overgrown with dock weeds and a general litter presence throughout – mostly food related items, cardboard boxes and significant cigarette butt presence.

Longford Shopping Centre Car Park: Grade B
This Longford County Council Car park was well presented with nice grass / tree planting. All paving / road surfaces were in good order. There was a very wide variety of litter, mostly casually dropped food related items and some dog fouling.

‘Bring Facility’ / Recycle Area: Grade A
This small facility got the top litter grade, but only just. It was generally freshly presented (bar one unit) with signage associated with the usage of same in good order. If there was any more broken glass) at the base of the units) and cardboard boxes, this would have been downgraded. A great initiative at this facility was the movement and sensor which thanks for recycling and advises taking one’s bags and boxes away.

Harbour Point - Residential: Grade C
This was by far the most heavily littered site surveyed in Longford. There was a very obvious mineral can, plastic bottle, sweet paper, fast-food wrapper and alcohol can presence, many of which were strewn across the lush grass area.

While litter levels rose slightly nationwide, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean in 2023, with Maynooth edging out Mallow and much improved Sligo to take the title of cleanest town.

Waterford was again our cleanest city, ahead of Galway. These were the only cities to be judged ‘clean’, with Cork City Centre improving to ‘moderately littered’ but Dublin falling to ‘littered’, alongside Limerick.

“There is some good news in our cities, however,” says Conor Horgan. “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.”

‘We need action on coffee cups”

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,” says Conor Horgan. “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.       

IBAL welcomes the introduction next month of the Deposit Return Scheme as a potential game-changer in the fight against litter, much as the plastic bag levy was. The scheme will see consumers pay a deposit of 15 cent on cans and up to 25 cent on plastic bottles, refundable on their return. “This latest survey shows these items to be present in just under half of the hundreds of sites we surveyed. This scheme will remove a large portion of this litter and bring about a significantly cleaner environment in 2024. While there may be some inconvenience for consumers, the prize is a very real, and a very immediate one.”

There was another significant rise in the prevalence of disposable vapes, highlighted previously as an emerging source of litter. These were found in more than 10% of all sites covered.