'Significant improvement' as Dundalk is less littered

There was finally some good news for Dundalk in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey with the town ranking 30th out of 40 towns and cities surveyed, moving up by nine places when compared with the last survey result in January.

The survey said Dundalk had gone from ‘littered’ to ‘Moderately Littered’ with judges remarking, “there was significant improvement on view in Dundalk, with five top ranking sites and two sites just shy of same.”

Clanbrassil Street was described as “very well presented with attractive paving and streetscape”.

Other top ranking sites included some of the approach roads and the clothing bring centre at Castletown Road.

It was the presence of three heavily littered sites which brought down the overall Dundalk ranking.

The heavily littered sites marked as needing more attention were the public park at Maxwell Row, Castletown River Bridge and the car park at Cost Savers Storage / Service Area, with the survey noting “they all present poorly.”

Established in 1996 by businessman Dr Tom Cavanagh, IBAL 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”. In addition, IBAL believes all citizens have the right to a clean living environment.

Since 2002, Irish Business Against Litter has commissioned An Taisce to carry out litter surveys of our main towns and cities according to international standards. The towns and cities are then ranked in a league table format.

The An Taisce report for Dundalk gave verdicts on ten different locations in the town, with the top five receiving a Grade A, two a Grade B+, one Grade C+ and two Grade Cs.

The verdicts on each of the ten, ranking from A to D with An Taisce’s comments on each, were as follows:

Clanbrassil Street: Grade A

“The overall impression was of a virtual absence of litter along this large site. The streetscape looked very well - attractive paving, ornamental trees, seating, street lamps etc. Clearly a careful eye is kept on the various vacant / run down premises as there was minimal litter associated with them.
“As a general observation, and not just within Dundalk, disposable vape users are putting the stickers from the packaging onto the litter bins – very unsightly.”

Public Park, Maxwell Row: Grade C+

“There didn’t appear to be signage associated with this park area, with just one litter bin on the footpath outside. There was a definite litter presence within, mostly food related items on the grass area. Dog Fouling signage ‘Litter Louts Don’t Litter Louth’.”

Castletown River Bridge: Grade C

“There were significant levels of ‘long-lie’ litter, much of it food and alcohol related, along the banks / edge of the river adjacent to the bridge. While there may have been some clean up, this area presents poorly.”

Francis Street: Grade B+

“The street signage is very old / practically illegible at one junction. Efforts have been made to ‘take away the bare look’ by painting the various electricity type boxes, but this stretch of wall presents poorly.
“Clearly a careful eye is kept on the numerous vacant sites as there was no litter directly associated with them. Francis Street just missed the top litter grade.”

N52 - from M1 junction to Hoey’s Lane junction: Grade A

“An exceptionally freshly presented tree lined route with all aspects in very good condition. It was clean, tidy and very well attended, creating a very positive first impression of Dundalk.”

Avenue Road to Blackrock Road: Grade B+

“Much of this route was in good order with regards to litter but it was let down by fresh / recent food related items e.g. sweet wrappers and plastic bottles, particularly close to the signage asking the drivers to ‘Pass with Care’ when overtaking the cyclists. The ‘planted’ roundabout was a lovely feature.”

Bring Centre / Clothing - Castletown Road: Grade A

“The two clothing recycle units were freshly presented with the signage associated with use of same in good order. Overall, the site was deserving of the top litter grade.”

St. Nicholas Avenue: Grade A

“The residential area of St. Nicholas Avenue was very well presented and maintained – well done to all concerned. The overall impression was a very clean and tidy one.”

Car Park at Cost Cutters Storage / Service Area: Grade C

“There was little noticeable improvement on previous IBAL surveys. It wasn’t just untidy but heavily littered with plastic bags and other industrial packaging / wrapping.”

Dublin Road: Grade A. (from N52 turnoff to turnoff for Avenue Road)

“The overall impression created along this route was a positive one with a virtual absence of litter throughout – minor items closer to the town centre.”

Nationally, the survey, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of IBAL, showed a healthy rise in towns reaching the upper tier of cleanliness – ‘Cleaner than European Norms’ - and a fall of 35% in the number of towns branded ‘littered’.

“Our study paints a much better picture than a few years ago, with levels of cleanliness definitely rising,” says IBAL’s Conor Horgan.

“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. While plastic bottles were also less common than in any past survey, they remain the third most prevalent form of litter on our streets.

Mr Horgan continued: “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. Ultimately, we should see can and plastic bottle litter disappear entirely.

“These initial results indicate that if there’s a monetary incentive to do the right thing, people will respond. The same logic applies to a coffee cup levy.

“Tackling specific litter types with tailored measures is the most effective way of ridding our streets of litter. We concede that it’s an inconvenience for people, but that’s a price we must pay.”

Coffee cups, while down, were present in one of every five sites surveyed. Unlike in some countries, the Return Scheme does not include beer bottles, which were found in 10% of sites. “Is there a good reason why we cannot go further and make these bottles returnable also?” asked Horgan.

“It is disappointing that we see no progress in the development of degradable chewing gum. Across a swathe of industries, companies are adapting their products and packaging in the interests of the environment, but there seems to be no impetus for gum manufacturers to take such a step. As a result, their products lie on our streets for decades and decades.”

Cigarette butt litter remains stubbornly high, present in 31% of the 500+ sites surveyed.