The first post-lockdown survey by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows Killarney and Tralee both deemed "clean" but have fallen in the ranking of 40 areas nationwide, to 22nd and 23rd spots respectively.

Last year Killarney was in second position. While the majority of towns have cleaned up over the past 12 months, litter in the main cities has worsened to levels not seen in 10 years. Portlaoise emerged as cleanest town. The study, for the 19th year of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, found no fall-off in PPE litter across the country.

"It was the reduction in the number of top-ranking sites which brought down Killarney’s overall ranking," the An Taisce report for Killarney stated. "There were no heavily littered sites. High Street, Killarney Train Station and Port Road were all in very good order, not just in regard to litter but overall maintenance. It would seem that the ‘outdoor dining’ was contributing to the litter presence along Scott’s Street, based on the menus, food waste and salt and pepper sachets on the ground. Killarney House and Gardens is a wonderful resource and most of it was very clean, but it was impossible to ignore the litter close to the entrance/signage.

An Taisce report stated that Tralee put in "a solid performance with no seriously littered sites".

"A Miscellaneous Site on Mitchel Street which was heavily littered last year has since been boarded up and fared somewhat better but was still somewhat littered. Tralee Town Park is a lovely environment, with so many different aspects and features within, all in very good order. Work continues along The Mall, but this didn’t impact in any negative way on the litter situation."

The number of areas deemed clean by An Taisce, 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.

"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 two years ago. This is still some way short of where they were in 2014, however,” IBAL’s Conor Horgan said.

By contrast, the majority of urban areas fared worse than in 2020, among them Dublin, Cork and Limerick City Centres, which were all deemed ‘littered’.

Continued Rise in Covid-related litter

The study showed a near-30% increase in the prevalence of PPE masks on 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," he said. “We are consuming more outdoors and this is translating into more food and drink related litter.”

Despite this, the survey showed a 20% drop in coffee cup litter. There was also a steep fall-off in cigarette butts.

IBAL was once again critical of the failure of local authorities to address sites which they have previously highlighted as heavily littered, especially in urban areas. Of the 103 such sites exposed last year, fewer than half have been cleaned up in 2021.