The first national litter survey of 2024 by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows Roscommon and Longford towns both ‘moderately littered’ and slipping to 34th and 35th position respectively in the ranking of 40 towns and cities with Athlone also falling into the ‘moderately littered’ category in 26th position.
The study reveals an overall improvement in litter levels, and a decrease in cans and plastic bottles on our streets on foot of the Deposit Return Scheme.
The An Taisce report for Roscommon town stated:
“The presence of two litter blackspots very much brought down Roscommon’s overall ranking.”
On a positive note, the report stated that “the three approach routes to Roscommon were very much deserving of the top litter grade, along with the Main Street, Centre Point Retail Park and Roscommon Arts Centre.”
The study, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, showed a healthy rise in towns reaching the upper tier of cleanliness, ‘Cleaner than European Norms’.
Speaking after the release of the report, IBAL’s Conor Horgan said: “Our study paints a much better picture than a few years ago, with levels of cleanliness definitely rising.
“Once again, no town was judged to be either a ‘litter blackspot’ or ‘heavily littered’ – that’s real progress.”
There was a near 30% fall in the prevalence of can-related litter since the previous survey and while plastic bottles were also less common than in any past survey, they remain the third most prevalent form of litter on our streets.
“It’s early days and we’re still seeing too many plastic bottles on our streets, but we can expect further improvement as people become accustomed to the Deposit Return Scheme and the legacy non-returnable items are flushed out of the system.”
The full IBAL rankings are below:
