Castlebar and Ballina improving in IBAL national litter league

Castlebar and Ballina improving in IBAL national litter league


Neill O’Neill

CASTLEBAR and Ballina have both recorded considerable improvements in the latest litter survey from Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL). The two Mayo towns were among 55 surveyed nationally by An Taisce, with Castlebar moving up 28 places to eighth position, and Ballina climbing 12 places – moving up to number 37.
Castlebar is now classified as ‘Clean to European Norms’, while Ballina is deemed ‘Moderately Littered’. Cork City ranked the most littered city in Ireland and Cobh the most littered town. Cavan town was the cleanest of the locations surveyed.
In the report on the litter league, the adjudicator from An Taisce said there were just two sites out of ten in Castlebar where litter was evident.
“Three out of the four approach routes were excellent, creating a positive first impression of the town which was sustained for the majority of the remaining sites. The top-ranking sites were not just clear of litter but very well maintained eg Castlebar Shopping Centre, Swimming Pool, Currach Gardens and Chestnut Grove. The overall presentation of GMIT Castlebar was much-improved on previous IBAL Anti-Litter surveys, resulting in a very good site this time around,” the report stated, also asking can Castlebar be the outright winner next time around. 
In Ballina, the improvements at the Dunnes Stores car park were commended, but the Foxford Road and area around the cinema were described as heavily littered.
“There has been a big change for the better at Ballina with fewer heavily-littered sites, and one of the most striking improvements was the Dunnes Stores Car Park – previously this had been seriously marred by ‘drinking parties’ and all associated debris – not so this time around,” according to the report. 
It added that the Church Road, Killala Road and Crossmolina Road approaches were all litter free, and regarding the cinema complex, stated that there was a lot of broken glass and heavy levels of a wide variety of food-related litter present.
“The occupiers of the cinema and school are obliged by law to keep their external areas free of litter,” says the report. 
The IBAL survey revealed a positive overall change for Ireland’s litter problem with 60 per cent of towns now clean to European norms – the highest percentage ever.
However, chewing gum was once again a major source of litter nationally, and IBAL are now calling for the implementation of a tax on chewing gum, which would force the polluter to pay and manufacturers to produce biodegradable chewing gum.