The latest survey from business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) reveals Letterkenny is ‘Clean to European Norms.”
Donegal’s largest town was ranked 13th out of 40 towns and cities across the country in the survey.
The An Taisce report for Letterkenny stated: “A very strong performance by Letterkenny, with five top-ranking sites, four sites just shy of top ranking and just one seriously littered. Ballyboe – Glencar Park is a lovely park environment which was excellent with regards to litter.
“Other top ranking sites included Upper Main Street, Pinehill Business Park and Deposit Return Scheme at Letterkenny Retail Park.
“By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was the Recycle Facility at Aura Leisure – this presented very poorly and will likely deteriorate further, if not addressed.”
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 said “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.
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