D is for dirty as capital tops Euro litter poll
Dublin has been voted the filthiest city in the first European Litter Survey and the area around Croke Park has been branded a litter blackspot
Monday October 22 2007
DUBLIN is the dirtiest - and one of the most expensive --cities in Europe, a major survey reveals today.
Capital D stands for dirty as Dublin has been voted the filthiest out of 10 cities surveyed.
The area around Croke Park is branded a litter blackspot.
Dublin is also the third most expensive city in which to shop, according to the first European Litter Survey.
The lack of litter-fine enforcement is blamed for the high level of litter in Dublin.
The survey, conducted by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) organisation and An Taisce, found that Dublin had the most litter on its streets when compared with nine other major European cities, including Riga, Vienna, Strasbourg, Cologne, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Zurich, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
Cleanest
The Latvian capital, Riga, was the cleanest city surveyed.
In Dublin, the areas surrounding O'Connell Street, St Stephen's Green, Guinness Hopstore, Christchurch Cathedral, Temple Bar and Heuston Station all had serious litter problems.
Dublin was also the only city to have a "litter blackspot"; the roads around Croke Park, which was the worst area out of the 200 surveyed. It was also in stark contrast to most stadiums in the survey, in particular Nou Camp in Barcelona, which was branded "Clean".
The survey found that the the care and attention which Dublin's main streets get does not extend to the environs.
Dr Tom Kavanagh, IBAL chairman, said the survey showed that, in the main, most major European cities are clean, with the notable exception of Dublin. "It's unacceptable," he said. "Dublin is a thriving, modern European city with a global reputation, a very high cost of living but a chronic litter problem. There is so much money being spent on re-developing the city, but not enough spent on keeping it clean," he added.
Dr Kavanagh said businesses in particular were not being held accountable for the litter outside their premises and he called on Environment Minister John Gormley to address this problem. He added that enforcement should be a source of revenue, and not a cost.
The IBAL survey is particularly embarrassing given Dublin's well-publicised affluence -- of the 10 European cities surveyed, the Irish capital is the third most expensive.
The survey revealed that Dublin "had the highest number of areas with serious litter problems".
While some of the city's main streets were only lightly littered, in many cases it was the environs and nearby approaches, which brought down the overall result.
On Riga, the judges said: "The overall impression was of a city which was in spotless condition -- not just the main areas but also the environs."
Amsterdam and Dublin were both branded "Littered" cities.
In Vienna, which came second in the survey and was also declared "Clean", 30 new Litter Sheriffs have been appointed to enforce litter fines.
Chewing gum was heavily present in all areas throughout the 10 cities surveyed and IBAL cited it as the greatest problem we face.
"Chewing gum is filthy and very costly to remove from the streets, the costs are such that local authorities cannot finance the cleanup. We believe that the cost of removal should not be borne by the taxpayer but by the polluter, either the consumer or the manufacturer," said Dr Kavanagh.
He called for a tax on all non-biodegradable chewing gum, with the proceeds sent straight to local authorities to clean the gum from their streets. This was in keeping with the policy of "the polluter pays", which is the backbone of all environmental legislation in Europe.
- Treacy Hogan
