Litter black spots have been reduced by 50%, survey finds

There has been a significant fall in the number of recorded litter black spots across the country, according to the most recent survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

Although two-thirds of the 40 towns and cities examined were found to be clean, there were serious issues with litter in others, including some black spots with “mountains of black sacks” dumped in areas.

The group said there had been a 50 per cent fall in the overall number of areas deemed litter black spots compared with previous surveys.

The survey, published on Monday, found a drop in Covid-19-related litter such as discarded face masks, but noted a prevalence in coffee cups on streets. Littered face masks were seen in 17 per cent of areas compared with nearly a third of all towns and cities last year.

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The survey, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, was highly critical of Ballybane in Galway city, which had the worst rating of “seriously littered”. It said there was a “mountain of black sacks” lining one pathway, while an industrial estate had an “incredible air of neglect” with buildings that had fallen into a “terrible state of disrepair”.

Drogheda, Co Louth had the second worst rating and was also deemed “seriously littered”. The survey said it was “unusual” for an area’s main shopping street to be “so heavily littered” with alcohol-related items, cigarette butts and discarded face masks. There was also evidence of dumping in other areas of the town, it said.

North inner city

North-inner-city Dublin was found to have problems with litter and dumping, while the survey noted there had been recent improvements in the area. The survey said some areas that were previously very heavily littered had undergone a “transformation”, such as Buckingham Street, which it described as a clean site with no discarded bags of rubbish.

Other streets, such as the North Circular Road, saw little change from previous critical surveys, with bags of rubbish open and strewn across the area, it said. Ballymun was noted as having improved from a litter black spot last year to an area classed as moderately littered.

The litter survey of Cork city said some streets were subject to dumping on “a large scale”, which led to a “poor impression” of the area.

In total 26 areas were classed as cleaner than the European average, with Naas, Letterkenny, Cavan, Athlone and Longford deemed the most-litter-free towns.

IBAL spokesman Conor Horgan said recent improvements in previous black spots in disadvantaged areas of Dublin were welcome and showed efforts to tackle the problem were “finally coming good”.

He welcomed Government plans to introduce a 2c levy on disposable coffee cups later this year. “We must disincentivise the use of paper cups — even compostable or recyclable ones — as too many of them are ending up on the ground,” he said.