Dublin’s north inner city considered ‘seriously littered’

A survey of litter pollution in towns around the country has rated Dublin’s inner-city as the dirtiest town in Ireland. 

The report, which was conducted by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) and An Taisce, Ranked the Inner-city in last place out of the 40 towns surveyed. 

Dublin was joined with Limerick as the only two towns in the survey given the “seriously littered” designation.  

The report found that, since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ireland, the entire country has struggled with litter pollution with many towns losing their clean status in this year’s report. 

“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,” Said Conor Horgan,  a member of IBAL. 

Horgan called the coronavirus pandemic a “perfect storm” as the survey found the least number of clean towns since 2007. 

Worryingly, the survey saw a high prevalence of PPE litter with people regularly throwing masks and gloves onto the streets.  

People’s reluctance to pick-up PPE litter means that masks and gloves tend to stay on the streets for some time before being cleaned.