Cork town deemed second cleanest in Ireland as coffee cup littering on the rise across country

The Irish Business Against Litter results show more than 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, with Maynooth in Co Kildare edging out Mallow to take the overall title of cleanest town

Discarded coffee cups were found at over 30% of the 500 sites surveyed by Ibal inspectors.

Coffee cup littering is on the rise in many parts of the country, leading to calls for a new levy to be fast-tracked on disposable cardboard cups. 

The annual Irish Business Against Litter (Ibal) results — a nationwide survey of the cleanliness of 40 towns and cities — found that coffee cup littering is widespread.

Discarded coffee cups were found at over 30% of the 500 sites surveyed by Ibal inspectors.

“We are concerned at potential delays in introducing a coffee cup levy,” said Ibal's Conor Horgan. 

“We believe this action is needed to stamp out a product which is out of step with the circular economy. 

"Irrespective of how recyclable or compostable take-away cups are, these statistics show too many of them are ending up on our streets.”

Ibal says Killarney has benefited from having banned single-use cups last year, a move met with little or no resistance from the community.

For the first time since Ibal surveys began 20 years ago, no area has been deemed ‘seriously littered’, but problems persist in some places. 

Maynooth was top of the rankings of 40 towns and cities while Dublin’s north inner city was at the foot of the table.

Waterford was again Ireland’s cleanest city, ahead of Galway, with Cork City centre improving its ranking to ‘moderately littered’ but Dublin falling to ‘littered’, alongside Limerick.

Dublin's north inner city occupied last place in the table but its ‘littered’ status was an improvement on past years.

“This is a disappointing result for Dublin and Limerick city centres, given that they both enjoyed ‘clean’ status a few years ago,” said Mr Horgan.

While litter levels rose slightly overall, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean.

“There are many challenges facing our capital city, but clean streets are an important starting point on the path to recovery.”

Ibal says the impending deposit return scheme — which will see people charged a refundable deposit on certain drinks containers in shops— will   improve cleanliness levels.

While litter levels rose slightly overall, over 60% of towns surveyed were deemed clean, with Maynooth in Co Kildare edging out Mallow and Sligo to take the overall title of cleanest town.

An Taisce, who carry out the surveys on behalf of Ibal, commended Maynooth on attaining “a level of cleanliness over the course of 2023 which we have not encountered in two decades of surveying”.

The university campus was described as "spotless", with the main street achieving “an excellent result for a busy shopping environment".

In Limerick, there were “monumental levels of dumping” on Mallow St, while the vacant site on William St was “an eye-sore, right in the heart of the city”.

“Vast amounts of litter and domestic rubbish” were noted along Dublin’s Sherrard St, while Cathedral St on Cork’s northside “wasn’t just casually littered but subject to dumping”.

“There is some good news in our cities, however,” said Mr Horgan.

“For years our worst performing areas were deemed either ‘litter blackspots’ or ‘seriously littered’. 

"This baseline would seem to be changing, with ‘littered’ becoming the bottom tier. 

"Cleanliness begets cleanliness, and there is reason to hope the improvement will continue in future years.”