Environment
Castlebar Tidy Town - IBAL Survey 2008
By Noel Byrne
20, Oct 2008 - 21:14

The Irish Business Against Litter second round result has just been publish and Castlebar has risen to eight place overall. Below are some relevant comments and a table of the top ten towns. Set up in 1996, Irish Business Against Litter is an alliance of companies sharing a belief that continued economic prosperity - notably in the areas of tourism, food and direct foreign investment - is contingent on a clean, litter-free environment. As part of the IBAL Anti-Litter League, An Taisce monitors all towns of population 6,000 and over, independently in accordance with international grading standards.

The IBAL survey revealed a positive overall change for Ireland’s litter problem with 60% of towns now clean to European norms – the highest percentage ever. 33 of the towns surveyed are now as clean as their European neighbours, with some moving from “littered” towns in the previous survey up the table.

IBAL’s experience is that once a town achieves litter-free status for 2-3 years, it tends to stay clean. The citizens drop less litter in a clean town, cleaning costs tend to reduce rather than increase, therefore, this is not a cost issue.  Chewing gum was once again a major source of litter with over 50 tonnes dropped on the streets annually, it stays there as it cannot be swept up. IBAL would like to see the implementation of a tax on chewing gum, forcing manufacturers to produce biodegradable chewing gum and the polluter to pay, an idea that is fundamental to all European environmental legislation.

IBAL Anti Litter League 2^nd Round Results Table 2008