IBAL reports say Waterford City is cleaner than European norms

The latest survey from business group, Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), revealed that Waterford City improved to ‘Cleaner than European Norms' status.

The city also rose to eight in the rankings of 40 towns and cities across Ireland and within the city, Ballybeg was ranked 15th in terms of being clean.

The An Taisce report for Waterford City stated: 'Waterford City has retained its high ranking position and was again Ireland’s cleanest city.' 

The report noted that with many top-ranking sites it wasn't possible to mention them all, however, some stood out for various reasons.

According to the report standout areas included: The Mall ('beautifully presented and maintained'_. the shopping area of Barrow Street, Broad Street, the Viking Triangle, Museum Quarter, the quays, river walk, Lombard Street and William Street. 

'The latter, while not quite as beautiful as the others deserves a mention as clearly as it was clear of litter, despite plenty of closed down [or] derelict sites,' noted the inspectors in the report.

'There was only one heavily littered site - the Bring Bank at Tesco Ardkeen,' they added.

Improvements were noted at ‘Woodpecker’ site, Apple Market Car Park and the site beside the Vee Car Park.

The An Taisce report for Ballybeg stated: 'A slight slip on 2024, but a solid result for Ballybeg with half of the sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and just one seriously littered one. There were no litter blackspots. The residential area of Ardmore Terrace and Ballybeg Stores and environs were much improved compared to previous IBAL surveys, just missing the top litter grade this time around.'

'By far the most heavily littered site was Ballybeg Bring Bank – it wasn’t just littered but dumped upon,' noted the inspectors.

Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024 and Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. 

Only four areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number on five years and both Dublin and Cork city centres had improved in advance of the peak season for visitors.

“It is encouraging to see that our main city centres, Dublin and Cork, have improved as we welcome summer visitors to our country," said IBAL's Conor Horgan.

"Clean streets are imperative, given the challenges facing Ireland as a high-cost destination,” he said, noting that Dublin’s North Inner City, seriously littered, remains rooted to the foot of the rankings.

“No progress is likely in the North Inner City without a ban on bags," he said.

"We need the Council to come good on its intention to convert the entire city to bin collection services. In addition, it is high time that appropriate legal changes were brought into effect to allow the council to pursue those responsible for littered basements, an age-old blight on our Capital City," he added.

He also highlighted that one year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50 per cent on previous levels but was still found in 20 per cent of the 500-plus sites surveyed across the country. 

"We hope that the scheme will see the disappearance of this litter, but statistics so far do not bear this out. Cans and plastic bottles are far from a rare sight on our streets and in our hedgerows," said Mr Horgan.

"While the prevalence of coffee cups on our streets remains stubbornly high, there was a fall-off in disposable vape litter," he added.

"The UK and Northern Ireland outlawed disposable vapes earlier this month and a ban here is likely in the coming months."

The survey found the main streets of towns to be generally clean, as were heritage and amenity sites. Residential areas, bus and train stations and recycle facilities were most likely to be littered.