Well, this is rubbish. Literally.
A survey conducted by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) has found that only four of Ireland’s rivers, beaches and harbours are clean enough to meet the European norm.
40% meet the criteria for “Littered” or “Heavily Littered.” The worst black-spots are Bantry in Co. Cork, the River Boyne in Louth, Clogher Head in Louth, River Shannon (Portumna) in Galway and Waterford’s Suir River. Other popular tourist sites like Bundoran and Dingle were described as “Littered”.
The only four sites that met the criteria for “Clean to European Norms” were Kinsale Harbour in Cork, Salthill in Galway, Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim and River Shannon (Lanesboro) in Longford.
The vast majority of sites fell into the category of “moderately littered.”
IBAL's first ever survey of Ireland's beaches, rivers and harbours reveals almost 40% are "littered", or worse … pic.twitter.com/mEJzvfjcfH
— Irish Business Against Litter (@IrishLitter) August 12, 2018
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Following heatwave temperatures over the summer, there was significant evidence of Irish beaches and bodies of water being left in an absolute state.
Brittas Bay was among the beaches trashed earlier on this year, as well as Laytown Strand in Meath.
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