Zero litter tolerance has arrived in Co Waterford, after its rubbish-free status won it a prize of an advance factory worth at least £1 million from Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). IBAL is a pressure group supported by private business which promotes the equating of environmental cleanliness with economic prosperity.

"The county had to energetically tackle the litter issue by enforcing the law and establishing new and imaginative schemes", IBAL's chairman, Mr Tom Cavanagh, said yesterday. "Anyone who drove through Waterford in the last six months would be moved. It is like being in a different country," said Mr Cavanagh, a Cork businessman who is a director of Warner Lambert and part-owner of Dublin's Conrad Hotel. Among IBAL's 21 founder members are the two main banks, Coca-Cola, CRH, the Irish Hotels Federation and Irish Distillers.