LITTER LEVELS IN Ireland have dropped since the introduction of  the Deposit Return Scheme, an independent survey has found.

The annual litter survey, conducted by Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL), found that 23 out of 40 towns their visited were either cleaner than European norms or met European norms. There were overall lower litter levels when compared to last year.

The group has flagged that Dublin City Centre did not improve, despite the Deposit Return Scheme helping to reduce plastic bottles and cans by around 20% and 30%, respectively.

Naas in Co Kildare was the cleanest, according to the survey, while Dublin City Centre saw the fourth survey in succession where it has deteriorated when it comes to rubbish and little on the street.

“Our study paints a much better picture than a few years ago, with levels of cleanliness definitely rising,” IBAL’s Conor Horgan said.

“Once again, no town was judged to be either a ‘litter blackspot’ or ‘heavily littered’ – that’s real progress, progress that has been hard earned in our cities.”

Coffee cups, while down, were present in 1 of every 5 of the over 500 sites surveyed and beer bottles, which are not able to be returned, were found at 10% of all sites.

Horgan suggested that opening up the Deposit Return Scheme to glass bottles may help in curbing them being littered.

The most common piece of rubbish were cigarette butts, which the survey said remains “stubbornly high”, and appeared at 31% of all sites.