Tidy Towns group welcomes Cavan litter results

Published: Mon 13 Jun 2022, 5:56 PM

Last updated: Mon 13 Jun 2022, 6:01 PM

Cavan’s Tidy Towns group says it’s delighted with the drastic improvement the town has seen in the latest IBAL survey.

The Irish Business Against Litter ranking has seen Cavan town rise from 17th out of 40 in January to 3rd.

“This is a marvellous result and the people of Cavan can be proud of their efforts and of their town”, said Chair of Cavan’s Tidy Towns Tony Prunty.

“On behalf of Cavan Tidy Towns, I would like to congratulate everyone involved in getting Cavan Town to this position. These include the Tidy Towns committee and all its volunteers, who took part in numerous clean-ups this year; various groups such as the National schools, Rehabcare, The Alzheimer's Society and a special thanks to Cavan County Council, who provide us with all the gear and materials needed for litter pick-ups”.

The survey, the results of which were released on Monday, show Cavan town is now “cleaner than European norms”, a major achievement for an area which only gained “clean” status late last year.

Cavan has done relatively poorly in the survey in recent years, with litter blackspots regularly impacting the result.

IBAL adjudicators said there has been a “sharp fall” in the number of litter blackspots across the country, with PPE litter on the decrease. The prevalence of PPE masks fell sharply compared to the previous survey, present in 17% of sites examined, compared to 32% in 2021.

There was also a fall-off in alcohol-related litter, and there was an improvement in the state of public parks, 80% of which were found clean.

Recycle centres were also found to be cleaner.

But issues remain. Coffee cup litter remained high, evident in one quarter of all sites surveyed, with IBAL lobbying that tackling the issue still warranted action such as the introduction of a possible levy.

As for Cavan, Tony Prunty is hopeful the town’s recent improvements will continue into the future:

“Hopefully, by the next adjudication in December, we will have retained our position on the League table or even improved it.”