Mixed results for Kerry in newest IBAL litter league

THE final results of the 2018 IBAL Litter League contain mixed news for Kerry with Killarney near the summit while Tralee remains rooted to the lower rungs of the table.

The League – run by An Taisce on behalf of the Irish Business Against Litter environmental alliance of businesses – sees 40 Irish towns and city centres rated and ranked according to the their cleanliness.

While Killarney and Tralee moved up the table, the fortunes of both were markedly different.

Killarney jumped 13 places on its final 2017 position, reaching third place in the final league table for 2018, while Tralee went up only a single place from 31st to 30th position.

The results also mark an improvement for both towns on the league’s Round One results, which were announced last October. The Round One results had Killarney in sixth place with Tralee in 34th.

While Tralee remains in the bottom quarter of the table, there was some good news for the town in the fact that, significantly, it did improve its classification, going from ‘moderately littered’ in 2017 to ‘clean to European norms’ in 2018.

The judges from An Taisce, who carry out the surveys on behalf of IBAL, were full of praise for Killarney.

“An outstanding performance by one of the country’s busiest tourist attractions,” they wrote.

“Some top-ranking sites deserve a special mention, for example the Recycle Facility was excellent, (rare for such facilities generally); the Main Street wasn’t just very good with regard to litter but overall presentation e.g. paving, seating, bollards etc.; the same applied to the Jarvey Park – this was a very attractively presented and maintained environment; Some of the bins in Killarney provided the opportunity for ‘dry recycling’ and this is a very welcome feature,” the judges said.

As a runner up in the top three of the league, Killarney will receive a number of Norway maple trees to enhance the local environment, courtesy of the Irish Tree Centre in Cork.

While Tralee didn’t fare well in the league overall, the judges had some welcome, positive comments about the county capital.

“It is great to see an important town like Tralee reclaim Clean status with a much-improved showing,” they said.

“Top-ranking sites included Ashe Street, Pairc an Phiarsaigh and Denny Street – these were well presented and maintained. It was noted in Tralee that Rock Street was much improved on previous IBAL litter surveys and just missed getting the top litter grade,” said the judges.

“By far the most heavily littered site in Tralee was the Car Park in Godfrey Place – clearly somebody is claiming ‘ownership’ of same by charging for parking, but the area was in a dreadful mess with regard to litter,” the judges said.