Top ten finish for Tullamore in clean rankings

Tullamore has finished in the top ten in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) rankings.

Today, business group IBAL released its final standings for 2024, which found Tullamore to be Cleaner than European Norms at ninth of 40 towns and cities surveyed nationwide.

It's a significant improvement in standings for the town, which was ranked 19th in the mid-year survey in June, and 23rd at the end of year survey for 2023.

The An Taisce report for Tullamore stated: "An excellent result for Tullamore with eight out of the ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and no heavily littered ones. Top- ranking sites included Columcille Street, the residential area of Harbour Drive and the Bridge Shopping Centre. Considerable improvements were noted compared to previous IBAL surveys at Car Park, Daingean Road – well done to all concerned. Clearly a careful eye is kept on the various vacant / derelict sites along Main Street – there was no litter directly associated with them."

Elsewhere in the midlands, Mullingar, Portlaoise and Athlone were all deemed clean to European norms. Mullingar tied 14th, Portlaoise placed 19th and Athlone was 25th.

Nationally, a key finding of the survey was that a fall in plastic bottles and cans on our streets, brought about by the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), was not enough to reduce overall litter levels in Ireland last year.

Overall litter levels were on a par with 12 months ago. In all, 60% of the towns and cities surveyed were deemed ‘clean’.

On a positive note, 2024 saw a further fall in the number of sites within cities and towns that were deemed ‘litter blackspots’, which suggests that local authorities were generally more effective in tackling urban dumping and in addressing sites that IBAL had previously highlighted.

The survey also revealed a near-50% fall in the prevalence of plastic bottles and cans in the over 500 sites monitored since the Deposit Return Scheme was introduced last year.

“We are definitely seeing cans and bottles disappear from our streets, which is very welcome – not only are they unsightly, but the bottles contribute to the very real problem of plastic pollution. However, it is clear from our survey that people continue to discard a wide range of litter types with flagrant disregard for their surroundings,” says Conor Horgan. Sweet wrappers and fast-food wrappers were the most common litter types, ahead of plastic bags and coffee cups, which were present in over 20% of sites.

“The DRS was one of a number of structural measures broached by the last government as part of its environmental agenda, with knock-on benefits in terms of litter. A ban on disposable vapes and a coffee cup levy were others.

“The need for such measures is evident in the stubbornly low penetration levels of refillable coffee cups and the proliferation of highly damaging vape litter, which cannot be recycled. If we are to see sustainable improvement nationwide, it is important that the incoming regime maintain the momentum on anti-litter legislation.”

Killarney, which outlawed disposable coffee cups in 2023, was one of the most improved towns last year, rising from 14th to 4th in the rankings. “Given the evident success of this initiative in Killarney, it is perplexing why other towns have not yet followed suit,” commented Conor Horgan.