Athlone drops in litter ranking and finishes 'Clean to European norms'

Athlone has finished in 16th place in the final litter survey of 2022 by business group Irish Business Against Litter.

The town was deemed 'clean to European norms' but the performance had deteriorated significantly from the summer survey in which Athlone was placed fourth and deemed 'cleaner than European norms'.

However, it was much the same as its final ranking in 2021 (18th).

Mullingar made the top ten this time around, rising to ninth place in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide. In all, three quarters of Ireland’s cities and towns were deemed ‘clean’ in 2022, compared to just over half in the previous year. Naas was again top of the rankings.

The An Taisce report for Athlone stated: “Athlone recorded fewer grade A sites than last time round in what was nonetheless a strong performance. Top-ranking sites included Arcadia Retail Park (an exceptionally clean and well-presented environment) and Athlone Civic Centre / Library (attractively presented with lovely paving, visitor information signage, bicycle parking, 1916 memorial etc.) and a couple of the approach routes. By far the most heavily littered site was Shannon Bank Nature Trail - (between Talbot Avenue and College Park): some parts were fine with regard to litter but there was evidence of burnt items and dumping. The Golden Island/Civic Amenity Recycle Centre was certainly better than in previous IBAL surveys.”

Cleanliness levels nationwide improved by 6% in 2022, with Naas pipping Kilkenny and Maynooth in the rankings. For the third year in succession, Waterford was the cleanest city, ahead of Galway. Urban areas improved by 12%, yet they continue to occupy the lower positions in the IBAL rankings.

“The results reflect a pattern of improvement since the peak of the Covid pandemic, when litter levels soared, especially in cities,” said IBAL’s Conor Horgan.

“In particular we are seeing local authorities concentrate their efforts on ridding areas of heavily littered sites. We have no reason to believe this improvement will not be sustained. Cleanliness is a virtuous circle: clean streets beget clean streets, inspiring a pride and consciousness of the environment among people.”

IBAL said that plastic bottle and cans continue to be a major source of litter, second only to sweet wrappers and present in one in three of the 500-plus sites surveyed. IBAL believes the findings bolster the case for a deposit return scheme, which is due to be introduced this year, and which will see consumers pay a deposit which they can reclaim on returning their containers to a retailer or other collection point.

“Based on this data the scheme is sorely needed and stands to rid our streets of a significant amount of litter. The same applies to the proposed coffee cup levy,” commented Conor Horgan. While there was a fall in the prevalence of coffee cups, they were still found in 25% of sites surveyed.

The survey showed cigarette butts remain a persistent form of litter.