Letterkenny remains clean but slips outside Top 10 in 2023 litter rankings

The final litter survey of 2023 by business group Irish Business Against Litter shows Letterkenny deemed ‘clean to European norms”.

However, the town slipped outside the top ten to 17^th in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.

For the first time since surveys began 20 years ago, no area was deemed ‘seriously littered’, with Maynooth claiming top spot.

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

The An Taisce report for Letterkenny stated “Another strong result for Letterkenny, but with fewer clean sites than previously.  There were no seriously littered sites.

“Upper Main Street was particularly well presented e.g. lovely large wooden planter boxes (with an abundance of colourful planting), wooden seating, paving etc. and it was very much deserving of the top litter grade.  Other top-ranking sites included Letterkenny Retail Park and the residential area of Rann Mór Court. The moderately litter sites included Letterkenny Bus Depot.”

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.

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

Set up in 1996, Irish Business Against Litter is an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity – notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment – is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment.

As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors towns independently and in accordance with international grading standards.

2023 IBAL ANTI-LITTER LEAGUE – FINAL STANDINGS