Cavan slips in IBAL Litter survey

The N3 from Dublin Road Roundabout to junction with the R18 had significant levels of food related litter, particularly at the makeshift lay-bys.

Cavan town has failed to retain clean status in the final IBAL litter survey of 2020 and has now slipped to 23rd position.

Monaghan is at 27th in the rankings, and both now have moderately littered status.

Kilkenny retained top spot, ahead of Killarney and Ennis.

According to the report, litter levels continue to rise nationwide, with fewer than half of the towns surveyed deemed clean, with IBAL saying the reluctance among civic-minded people to pick up litter during the pandemic may carry long term consequences.

The An Taisce report for Cavan stated: “It is disappointing that a town which has been perennially clean like Cavan has slipped to moderately littered. There were several sites which just missed the top litter grade – an improvement at some of these would make a difference to the overall ranking."

Examples include SuperValu shopping centre, Car Park at Tesco and Church Street. By far the most heavily littered site was a miscellaneous storage area off Main Street – this had major levels of litter and other miscellaneous items.

The N3 from Dublin Road Roundabout to junction with the R18 had significant levels of food related litter, particularly at the makeshift lay-bys.

According to IBAL, the survey results are consistent with a trend in recent years.

“The decline in cleanliness is less a case of the poorer areas getting worse, but of previously clean towns slipping to littered,” says IBAL spokesperson Conor Horgan.

“Covid is clearly a factor here, but we should never accept litter as inevitable. It comes down to people disposing of their waste without regard for their surroundings or their fellow citizens and it is entirely unnecessary”, added Mr Horgan.

He added that one explanation for the rise in litter across the country lies in the restrictions surrounding cleaning services during the pandemic.

“While council workers have not been on the streets as much as normal, the general public has been spending more time than ever out of doors,” says Mr Horgan.

There was a sharp rise in the amounts of litter on approach roads to towns, reflecting the fact that the benign winter has seen masses of people out walking.

“Ironically, too many of them are showing a shameful disregard for the environment they are enjoying.”