Plastic bottles and cans remain, despite Deposit Return Scheme

The latest survey from Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) reveals that Drogheda and Dundalk are both ‘Clean to European Norms” in 24^th and 25^th spots respectively in the ranking of 40 towns and cities across Ireland. 

In their report An Taisce stated: “Drogheda is certainly inching its way up the league, compared to just a few short years ago – well done to all concerned. 

“This time around there were six top ranking sites out of ten sites surveyed.  These included West Street (The paving / tree planting / on-street planting / ‘olde style’ street lamps looked very well), the residential area of Whitethorn and the public park space at St. Dominic’s Park. 

“By far the most heavily littered site was the Bring Centre, Trinity Street – bag of domestic rubbish had been dumped, the contents of which were foraged and strewn around, along with other dumping.” 

Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. 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 in 5 years. Both Dublin and Cork city centres have improved in advance of the peak season for visitors.  

One year on from the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, plastic bottle and can litter is down 50% on previous levels but was still found in 20% 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," says Conor Horgan. 

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

Click here for the judge’s full report for Drogheda