North Inner City A Litter Blackspot

Dublin’s North Inner City is a litter blackspot, coming bottom of the list on the latest litter survey.

The city centre has dropped to 36th out of 40 areas nationwide, while Ballymun is also littered but has improved significantly over the last 12 months.

Dun Laoghaire is cleaner than European norms in 5th place and Tallaght is now also clean.

The number of areas deemed clean by An Taisce nationwide, who carry out the survey on behalf of IBAL, rose from 17 to 23. In all, 68% of towns showed an improvement on last year. Portlaoise, which was at the very foot of the table back in 2010, topped the rankings, ahead of Leixlip and past winner Ennis.

For the first time since 2014, Dublin’s North Inner City was deemed a litter blackspot. Of the 25 sites in the area surveyed, only 2 were found to be clean, and 17 were ‘heavily littered’ or worse. Among these were the ESB site at Sheriff St Lr., Ossory Road, where “sacks of rubbish had been abandoned, along with piles and piles of accumulations of litter”, Aldborough Place, which was subject to dumping, the Canal Walk, where “heavy levels of food and alcohol related items had been discarded in the canal” and the Canal at Spencer Dock, where “bicycles, railings and industrial rubbish” were among the litter found.

IBAL’s Conor Horgan commented: “With local authority cleaning schedules normalising again and volunteer groups re-engaged in clean-ups across the country, our towns are almost as clean as 2 years ago. This is still some way short of where they were in 2014, however.”

The study showed a near-30% increase in the prevalence of PPE masks on our streets and an increase in alcohol-related litter such as cans and bottles. 

“The need for PPE has not abated – unfortunately we’re still using disposable masks, we’re still dropping them at an alarming rate and they are still not being picked up,“ says Conor Horgan.

2021 IBAL ANTI-LITTER LEAGUE – ROUND 1

Follow @98FM on Twitter for the latest Dublin news