ENNIS remains in the top ten of Ireland’s cleanest towns and cities. The latest survey by Irish Business Against Litter shows Ennis retaining its Cleaner than European Norms status, falling from third to ninth in the ranking of 40 towns and cities. A sharp fall in the number of litter blackspots across the country has brought an improvement in cities in particular, PPE litter is on the decrease, but the prevalence of coffee cups on our streets warrants action such as a levy, says IBAL. 2022 marks the 20th year of the IBAL litter surveys.
The An Taisce report for Ennis stated, “Another very strong performance by Ennis with seven out of ten sites surveyed getting the top litter grade and no heavily littered sites.  All approach routes were top ranking, creating a positive first impression of the town.  This high standard was present at other sites, including Westpoint Retail Park, O’Connell Street and Ennis Recycle Facility – the latter was particularly good for a recycle facility, as they were often very poorly maintained. Clearly there is great pride at this ‘managed’ facility.”
Two-thirds of the 40 towns and cities surveyed were found to be clean, among them Naas, which retained its position atop the rankings, ahead of Letterkenny and Cavan.
Overall litter levels showed a decrease on last year, with a dramatic fall of 50% in the number of sites within towns deemed to be ‘litter blackspots’.