Ranked at 34 out of 50, Limerick escaped a damning ‘litter blackspot’ label while Dundalk was announced as the cleanest town in Ireland at an awards ceremony in Dublin this week. Twenty two towns were classed as ‘litter-free’.

Dr Tom Cavanagh, Chairman of IBAL, praised the achievements of Limerick and other Irish towns and cities.

“Despite increased urbanisation, there is no doubt that our towns are becoming a cleaner place to live and work in. In 2002, we had just 2 towns achieving ‘litter-free status’ and we now have 22. It’s the 8 towns graded ‘seriously littered’ or worse that need to be targeted”.

An IBAL survey in June found that car littering was one of the main litter problems in the city.

“For towns like Killarney, Athlone, Cork City, Limerick City and Nenagh, it was litter on approach roads that brought down their overall rankings in this round of the anti -litter league,” the organisation said.

The IBAL Anti Litter League is the largest ever litter survey conducted in Ireland, with all areas of over 6,000 population covered over the course of the year, ensuring that the areas covered, have an overall population of close to two million people. Sites are graded by An Taisce according to international standards. 

According to IBAL, it is the transparency and competitiveness of its ‘Name and Shame’ approach that has spurred local government into action on litter.

Mr Cavanagh said that “there is no doubt that our cleanliness levels are continuing to rise”.

“To sustain this progress, county councils, whose remit it is to keep the areas outside the towns clean, will have to take litter seriously, not least on approach roads. IBAL will be monitoring these roads more and more in future surveys,” he added.

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