Navan is one of most littered towns in country says survey

The first nationwide litter survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) since the Covid-19 crisis shows Navan in 31st spot in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide deeming it to be ‘moderately littered.’

Other areas that scored lower than Navan were Ballymun, Carlow, Dublin City Centre, Galway Inner City, Tipperary, Tallaght, Cork Northside, Limerick City South and Dublin North Inner City.

There was a dramatic fall in the number of towns and cities deemed to be ‘clean’, to its lowest level since 2007.

Kilkenny was again judged best of the surveyed, with ‘seriously littered’ Dublin North Inner City at the foot of the table. The survey showed PPE litter to be widespread and a rise in the prevalence of cans and glass bottles.

“The rise in litter levels this year is across the board,” says IBAL’s Conor Horgan. “The Covid crisis has seen more dumping, more outdoor socialising, especially drinking, and PPE litter, but less cleaning by local authorities and less activity by volunteers like Tidy Towns -  a perfect storm, in many ways, which has brought us to the worst position we’ve been in in over 10 years.”

In the fight against Covid-19, local authorities have curtailed cleaning schedules and diverted resources to other areas.

At the same time, households have been generating more litter during lockdown and there has been a visible increase in drinking outdoors as pubs are closed, a fact borne out by the rise in bottles and cans found by the An Taisce inspectors, Galway City being one example.

However, there was a reduction in cigarette butts, perhaps also a reflection of pubs and offices being closed. Half of all recycle facilities surveyed were heavily littered, another likely consequence of the Covid crisis.

PPE litter was prevalent across the country, with masks 5 times as common as gloves.

“Understandably, people are reluctant to pick up these items for fear of contracting Covid, so they tend to stay on the ground. We need to see a rapid rise in the use of reusable masks,” says Conor Horgan.