Dublin has become cleaner according to the latest litter survey, with the north inner city recording it's best result in years.
The report from Irish Business Against Litter ranked the area in 38th place out of 40 areas across the country, describing it as littered. It found many of the poorer ranking sites in 2021 attaining a much higher grade including Sheriff Street Lower, Gardiner Street and Ballybough Road.
The city centre was also recorded as littered in 33rd place. The number of clean sites actually decreased, but this was offset by a sharp fall of over 50% in the number of blackspots.
There was a notable improvement in the overall presentation of Ballymun with several of the heavily littered sites in 2021 no longer so including the car park at the former Ballymun Shopping Centre.
Crumlin was found to be clean to European norms after being examined for the first time.
Two-thirds of the 40 towns and cities surveyed were found to be clean, among them Naas, which retained its position atop the rankings, ahead of Letterkenny and Cavan.
The prevalence of PPE masks fell sharply compared to the previous survey, present in 17% of sites examined, compared to 32% in 2021. However, coffee cup litter remained high, evident in one quarter of all sites surveyed.
“The findings bear out the need for action on coffee cups,” contends Conor Horgan, spokesperson for IBAL.
"We must disincentivise the use of paper cups – even compostable or recyclable ones – as too many of them are ending up on the ground. In the light of our survey, the Government move towards a levy makes a lot of sense."
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