The first nationwide litter survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) since the Covid-19 crisis shows a dramatic fall in the number of towns and cities deemed to be 'clean', to its lowest level since 2007.
Cities fared particularly badly, with Dublin city centre losing its clean status, 'littered' Tallaght dropping in the ranking and 'seriously littered' Dublin North Inner City at the foot of the table.
The survey showed PPE litter to be widespread and a rise in the prevalence of cans and glass bottles.
Dublin
An Taisce, who carried out the survey, deemed 23 towns to be 'clean', a fall of over 20% on last year. While no area was branded a "litter blackspot", North Inner City Dublin was once again seriously littered.
By contrast, Ballymun was among the few areas to improve on 2019, its Main Street praised as "very well presented, with a virtual absence of litter throughout". Ranelagh and Dublin Airport's environs were clean, but Tallaght fell back to 'littered'.
"The rise in litter levels this year is across the board," says IBAL's Conor Horgan. "The Covid crisis has seen more dumping, more outdoor socialising, especially drinking, and PPE litter, but less cleaning by local authorities and less activity by volunteers like Tidy Towns - a perfect storm, in many ways, which has brought us to the worst position we've been in in over 10 years."
PPE
In the fight against Covid-19, local authorities have curtailed cleaning schedules and diverted resources to other areas. At the same time, households have been generating more litter during lockdown and there has been a visible increase in drinking outdoors as pubs are closed, a fact borne out by the rise in bottles and cans found by the An Taisce inspectors, Galway City being one example. However, there was a reduction in cigarette butts, perhaps also a reflection of pubs and offices being closed. Half of all recycle facilities surveyed were heavily littered, another likely consequence of the Covid crisis. PPE litter was prevalent across the country, with masks 5 times as common as gloves.
"Understandably, people are reluctant to pick up these items for fear of contracting Covid, so they tend to stay on the ground. We need to see a rapid rise in the use of reusable masks," says Conor Horgan.
The first nationwide litter survey since the Covid-19 crisis shows a dramatic fall in the number of towns and cities deemed to be ‘clean’, to its lowest level since 2007. Find your town here.https://t.co/LSQt6fx39z#litter #litterleague #ibal
— Irish Business Against Litter (@IrishLitter) October 11, 2020
