A LIMERICK neighbourhood has attained a clean bill of health for the first time in the latest Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey.
The Galvone area in Limerick was previously identified as a heavily littered area for many years, but has this week attained a clean status for the first time in the ranking of 40 towns and cities nationwide.
Limerick City Centre, according to the recent rankings, also improved year-on-year to ‘moderately littered’ with 13 of the 25 sites surveyed getting the top litter grade.
The An Taisce report for Limerick City South – Galvone said that “this is most likely the first time that there were no heavily littered / dumped upon sites in Galvone”.
“There are two sites which deserve special mention as they had both been heavily littered/dumped upon in several previous IBAL surveys: the area at Treaty Steel signs at Galvone Industrial Estate and the bring facility at Roxboro Shopping Centre – while they were not quite top-ranking, there is clear evidence of enormous strides being made.”
Meanwhile in the city centre, the report highlighted a number of routes that achieved a top litter grade, such as Exit 28 to M7 to Castletroy, Groody Road, and the N24 Waterford Approach Road.
Improvements were also found on the city’s main thoroughfare on O’Connell Street, Ellen Street and Henry Street, as well as 31-32 Cecil St and the steps at St John’s Castle.
However, eight sites were highlighted as being ‘heavily littered’, with a number of city laneways described a “harbouring heavy levels of litter” on Parnell Street, the laneway between 9A and 10 William Street and laneway at Cruises Street Car Park.
The report states that this includes storage of industrial/business bins which brought down the litter grade in these areas.
Across the rest of the country, Sligo came out on top as the cleanest town in Ireland, with Waterford reclaiming its customary accolade of Ireland’s cleanest city.
The survey also revealed that the Deposit Return Scheme continues to have a positive impact on the cleanliness of our towns and cities, with a 10 per cent drop in the prevalence of cans and plastic bottles compared to the previous year.
Coffee cups remained one of the most commonly found forms of litter and was evident in one fifth of all sites surveyed, while the prevalence of disposable vapes, which are set to be outlawed later this year, remained unchanged.