‘One heavily littered site’ as Longford town loses its ‘clean’ status

Longford town has lost its ‘clean’ status and fallen to 30th position in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) league table. 

The latest survey from business group IBAL places Longford town, a former competition winner, in 30th spot in the ranking of 40 towns.

The An Taisce report for Longford town stated, “While there was just one heavily littered site, it was the shortage of top ranking sites which prevented Longford from retaining clean status.”

The report continued, “The Bring Facility was very much deserving of the top litter, not just clear of litter but freshly presented and well maintained. 

“Market Square has been attractively presented and laid out but was let down by a very obvious casually discarded litter presence. 

“By far the most heavily littered site surveyed was Congress Terrace / Ward’s Terrace.” 

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Naas was once again top of the ranking of 40 towns and cities, ahead of Ennis and Killarney. Overall, two-thirds of towns were clean, which was up on 2024. 

Only 4 areas were branded littered or seriously littered – the lowest number in 5 years. 

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. 

IBAL’s Conor Horgan said, "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.” 

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