Athlone Castle found to be free of litter in IBAL survey

Athlone Castle, Sean Costello St and the Car Park at Golden Island Shopping Centre were three of the areas found to be free of litter in the first post-pandemic survey to be carried out by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) group.

Athlone retained its status as being "Clean to European norms" in the survey which found that, in many instances, the overall environment of the town was "enhanced by seating, planting and good visitor information notices."

By far the most heavily littered site in Athlone was the town's Municipal Recycle Facility which the IBAL judges found to have "heavy accumulations of a wide variety of litter at the base of the shrubbery around the perimeter. "

This is the the 19th year of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, which is an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity - notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment - is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment.

As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors towns independently and in accordance with international grading standards.

The survey painted a bleak pictures for cities, which were once again found to have rapidly deteriorating litter levels. “Litter levels have worsened to a level we have not seen in the past ten years. Now that we have emerged from lockdown, we cannot use it as an excuse for high levels of litter” said Conor Horgan from IBAL.

There was also a continued rise in Covid-related litter, with the survey finding 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. “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.