Leixlip soars, Naas slips down on litter survey

THERE was mixed news for Kildare in the latest IBAL survey of Irish towns, where Leixlip came in second nationally as the least-littered town in Ireland, whereas former winner Naas has slipped out of the top ten for the first time, now residing at 13th.

The latest litter survey by business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) shows Leixlip is cleaner than European norms, in runner-up spot in the ranking of 40 towns and cities, just behind Sligo.

‘After a couple of years of great success in the IBAL survey, Naas has slipped somewhat,’ said the An Taisce inspector.

‘The presence of a heavily-littered site will typically bring down a town’s overall ranking, and this was at a derelict site at the corner of Corban’s Lane and Fairgreen Street – it wasn’t just littered, but subject to neglect and abuse – and most likely didn’t get into this state overnight.

‘Top ranking sites in Naas included North Main St, the residential area of Morell Dale and the waterside environment at ‘The Harbour’ – all elements were in very good order, and it was very much deserving of the top litter grade.

‘There were a number of moderately littered sites, among them Lock Bui, but this was mostly brought about due to the overflowing wheely bins and the associated tearing of refuse sacks by wildlife.

‘This was an excellent result for Leixlip – well done to all concerned.

‘As a general observation, there was plenty of evidence of Tidy Town activity throughout Leixlip, not just the specific sites visited for the purposes of the IBAL survey – examples included lovely planting and colourful ‘traffic light box’ type art, often in keeping with themes relating to the town itself.

‘With so many top-ranking sites, there were a few which deserve special mention, such as the Royal Canal Greenway from Louisa Bridge Station to Fishing Post No 19.

‘This is a beautifully presented environment which has some lovely features and was excellent with regards to litter.

‘Clearly a very careful eye is kept on the various closed down, vacant, or derelict sites along the Main Street as the entire stretch was spotless.

‘The town centre car park has some lovely features – an abundance of colourful hanging baskets and some excellent visitor information signage.

The number of towns deemed clean last year rose to 28, with Sligo finishing ahead of Leixlip, Westport and Monaghan.

An Taisce, which conducts the surveys on behalf of IBAL, lauded the winning town for its consistently strong performance in recent years.

Waterford reclaimed its customary accolade of Ireland’s cleanest city, ahead of Galway. Cork city centre was also clean.

The survey revealed that the deposit return scheme continues to have a positive impact on the cleanliness of our towns and cities, with a 10% drop in the prevalence of cans and plastic bottles compared to the previous year.

These two types of litter are now 60% less common than when the scheme was introduced in early 2024.

Coffee cups remained one of the most commonly found forms of litter and was evident in one-fifth of all sites surveyed.