On the 12th July 2019, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Burton T.D., published the 2018 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System Report. This Report was prepared by TOBIN Consulting Engineers’ Environment & Planning Division in our appointed role as the Litter Monitoring Body for Ireland.
The National Litter Pollution Monitoring System Report reveals the extent, causes and composition of litter across the country. The report provides valuable data, allowing local authorities to tackle littering in their area more effectively by highlighting the locations requiring more targeted attention.
The 2018 dataset is obtained from 5,258 litter pollution surveys and 1,543 litter quantification surveys. The national litter monitoring system results indicate that the percentage of unpolluted areas has increased from 15.6% in 2017 to 20.5% in 2018. Furthermore, this Report shows that 80% of all areas surveyed in 2018 were deemed to be either litter free or only slightly polluted so this is very welcome news. Passing pedestrians and passing motorists continue to be the largest causative factors in 2018.
Publishing the 2018 Report, Minister Bruton said:
“Thinking twice about how we handle waste is the first step to respecting our environment and the planet we inhabit. Littering could be halved if cigarette butts were properly disposed of. We seem to have a blind spot for this behaviour – it is six times more prevalent than sweet papers.
Overall the survey shows some promising results. We see an increase in unpolluted areas and a decrease in slightly and significantly polluted areas. However, we do also see a very slight increase in the amount of grossly polluted areas, with cigarette related litter remaining the largest offender.”
The full report can be found at: http://www.litter.ie/system_survey_results/index.shtml
