Waterford dethroned as Ireland's cleanest city but still ranks high in IBAL's litter league

Waterford has been dethroned as Ireland’s second cleanest city in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) Anti-Litter League, with Galway replacing Waterford as the cleanest city.

Waterford city ranked 16th out of 40 cities and towns and was classed as Clean to European norms.

Waterford City continues to score very well in the IBAL litter league, and this was very much helped along by seventeen out of the twenty-four sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and there were no litter blackspots. 

The report also cited that the “road from Waterford City to the Dog Pound no longer had heavy levels of litter present and was very much deserving of the top litter grade”, while the Greenway Car Park & environs were noted as having a “complete absence of litter throughout the survey area.”

Some of the other sites that were awarded Grade A include the People's Park, O'Connell Street, the Medieval Quarter, John Robert’s Square (Barronstrand St./Broad Street) and the Riverwalk from The Tower Hotel to Rice Bridge.

“While we are disappointed to have slipped from the top spot, the number of sites receiving the top grade remains consistent, with Ballybeg performing extremely well,” Ella Ryan, Environmental Awareness Officer with Waterford City and County Council commented. 

"The city was surveyed during a busy and festive time as Winterval was in full swing, and while there were some litter spots, the survey noted that some heavily littered sites in previous IBAL surveys had improved.

"We'd like to pay tribute to the Council's Cleansing team, volunteer clean-up groups, schools and the local communities for working to keep Waterford a clean, attractive place to live, work and invest in."

Ballybeg achieved an excellent result and went from being classed as Clean to European norms to a Cleaner than European norms classification in this most recent survey. 

Top grades were awarded to Ardmore Terrance, Ballybeg Drive Roundabout, BRILL Family Resource Centre, St. Saviour's GAA, Tesco Deposit Return Scheme, and Ballybeg Stores & environs.

The survey also revealed a near-50% fall in the prevalence of plastic bottles and cans in the 500-plus sites monitored since the Deposit Return Scheme was introduced last year.

Conor Horgan of IBAL said, “We are definitely seeing cans and bottles disappear from our streets, which is very welcome – not only are they unsightly, but the bottles contribute to the very real problem of plastic pollution. However, it is clear from our survey that people continue to discard a wide range of litter types with flagrant disregard for their surroundings.”

Sweet wrappers and fast-food wrappers were the most common litter types, ahead of plastic bags and coffee cups, which were present in over 20% of sites. 

Ryan added, “While Waterford City and County Council will continue to introduce new environmental awareness initiatives, we would also encourage the owners of private sites to ensure there are adequate bins in place so coffee cups, plastic bottles, plastic bags, fast food wrappers, mineral cans and sweet wrappers can be disposed of properly."