New Litter Plan for County Cork

1M for Local Authorities under Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme

2010 National Litter Report shows 72% areas surveyed have high level of cleanliness

Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has announced the provision of €1 million to local authorities under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme, and a further €0.5 million to assist local authorities in dealing with litter at key tourist locations during the peak summer season under the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant Scheme.  The Minister published the 2010 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System report which provides important statistical data about the extent, causes and composition of litter in Ireland

Minister Hogan said; ‘My Department is committed to providing support to litter awareness initiatives in order to educate and create greater public awareness of the positive social and economic effects a litter free environment can help provide. I am today announcing the provision of €1 million to local authorities under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme, and a further €0.5 million to assist local authorities to help make Ireland green in key tourist locations during the peak summer season under the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant Scheme. My Department will continue to engage with the EPA, the local authorities, the NRA, Fáilte Ireland, community groups and other interested stakeholders to ensure that litter levels continue to improve across the country. It is crucial that we all work together to present the country in the best possible light. We must create an attitude amongst the public that littering is an unacceptable, anti-social behaviour with damaging societal and economic consequences. Together we can make a difference.’

 Minister Hogan welcomed the publication of the 2010 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System report saying that; ‘The report shows that litter levels across the country continue to improve, with over 72% of areas surveyed demonstrating a high level of cleanliness. This is the best result achieved since monitoring began in 2002, when only 48% of areas surveyed achieved this level. It is evident from these results that anti-litter measures in place across the country are working, and I commend the local authorities and community groups for their ongoing efforts. However, we must all continue to work together, to ensure that improvements are maintained in the current challenging economic climate’.

 The 2010 report reveals that: 

• There has been an increase in litter free areas from 6.8% in 2009 to 9.7% in 2010;
• 62.8% of all areas surveyed were slightly littered, a decrease of 0.7% on 2009 levels;
• Moderately and significantly polluted areas have decreased by 1.5% and 0.6% to 24.2% and 3.1% respectively;
• The percentage of grossly polluted areas remained constant at 0.3%
• Cigarette related litter (51.4%), food related litter (23.5%), packaging litter (11.3%), and sweet related litter (7.4%) were identified as the main constituents of litter nationally;
• Passing pedestrians (37.8%), passing motorists (19.5%), retail outlets (10.2%) and gathering points (7.8%) were identified as the main sources or causes of litter nationally.

National Litter Pollution Monitoring System

The national monitoring system measures 3 key indicators of the litter problem – the extent, main causes and main constituents of litter pollution nationwide.  Measuring changes in these indicators over time enables local authorities to determine the effectiveness of their litter management strategies and ensure the optimum allocation of resources to tackle litter.  Thus, the main purpose of the system is to measure trends in the key indicators, allowing progress in tackling litter pollution at local and national levels to be measured.

Extent of Litter PollutionUnder the national monitoring system, the extent and severity of litter pollution is measured by using a Litter Pollution Index (LPI), which is a scale of 1 to 5 as described below:Unpolluted or litter free

1. Slightly polluted
2. Moderately polluted
3. Significantly polluted
4. Grossly polluted

 Figure 2.1            Comparison of Litter Pollution Indices (LPI) 2009 – 2010  

Figure 2.1 compares 2009 and 2010 litter pollution survey results

• 9.7 % of areas surveyed were litter free (LPI 1), an increase of 2.9 % on 2009.
• 62.8% of all areas surveyed were only slightly littered (LPI 2), a 0.7% decrease on 2009.
• The percentage of moderately polluted areas (LPI 3) has decreased by 1.5% on the 2009 results to 24.2%.
• The percentage of significantly polluted areas (LPI 4) has decreased by 0.6% on the 2009 results to 3.1%.
• The percentage of grossly polluted areas (LPI 5) has remained constant at 0.3%. 

Prescribed standards for each category of LPI have been circulated to all local authorities to ensure a consistent approach nationwide to measuring the extent of litter pollution in the surveyed areas. 

A key feature of the national monitoring system is its focus on monitoring in areas that are polluted or are likely to be polluted i.e. where potential sources of litter are located.  To this end, local authorities determine the locations for their surveys using maps produced by specially designed Litter GIS software, as follows: 

• 40% in “high risk” locations (e.g. in town or city centres) where the concentration of potential litter sources is greatest
• 40% in random potential litter generating areas – chosen by the Litter GIS software
• 20% in locations chosen by local authorities, based on local knowledge of litter pollution. 

Accordingly, the national monitoring system is biased towards measuring the nature and extent of litter pollution in those areas most likely to be littered; it will measure trends in these key indicators over time.   The System provides a reliable overview from which trends and conclusions can be drawn.

Causative Factors of Litter Pollution

The main causative factors of litter pollution identified in the litter pollution surveys were as follows:

• • Passing pedestrians continue to constitute the greatest single causative factor of litter pollution, accounting for 37.8% across all local authorities, a decrease of 0.5% on 2009.
  • Passing Motorists increased as a causative factor by 1.2% to 19.5% in 2010

• Other causative factors which increased from 2009 to 2010 include gathering points, fast food outlets, places of leisure/entertainment and fly tipping.
• Causative factors which decreased from 2009 to 2010 include schools, bus stops and construction sites. 

Litter Composition

Local authorities also carried out litter quantification surveys (or item counts) to determine the composition of litter in their areas.   A breakdown of the main constituents of litter pollution is highlighted in Figure 3.1 below: 

Figure 3.1            Composition of Litter in 2010 Broken Down into Main Categories 

From this data it can be seen that:

• Cigarette related litter, continues to constitute the highest percentage (51.4%) of litter nationally, an increase of 6% on 2009 figures – this is comprised mainly of cigarette ends which constitute 46.4% of all litter items;
• Food related litter, at 23.5%, a decrease of 5.7% is the second largest category of litter pollution recorded.  
• Chewing gum is the single largest litter component in the food related litter category, and also the second largest component nationally, comprising 21.4% of all litter recorded in the litter quantification surveys carried out in 2010, this represents a significant decrease of 5.9% on the 2009 figure
• Packaging litter at 11.3%, a decrease of 0.7% is the third largest component of national litter pollution recorded.   

A more detailed analysis of the litter pollution and quantification surveys data is available in the Report. The full 2010 system results report will be made available on the Department’s website www.environ.ie
NOTE 

1.  Tobin Consulting Engineers were appointed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as the Litter Monitoring Body (LMB) in May 1999 to develop a national litter pollution monitoring system and oversee local authority implementation of it.  The main purpose of the monitoring system is to generate, by means of surveys, reliable data to enable each local authority to measure accurately over time changes in the extent and composition of litter pollution in its area, and so provide for more effective litter management planning.

2.   In essence, the system requires local authorities to:                                                               i.      identify / map the potential sources of litter in their areas,                                                             ii.      use this data to identify the locations for surveys to determine the composition and         extent of litter pollution in their areas,                                                            iii.      carry out further series of surveys annually thereafter, the results of which can be compared to the “benchmark” or previous years’ survey results to measure progress in tackling litter, and                                                           iv.      complete the appropriate forms for the surveys and forward same to the LMB for analysis / assessment. 

3.   The LMB, on receipt of the survey data from local authorities:

                                                          i.            reports back to each local authority with its assessment of that authority’s survey data, and 

                                                       ii.            collates the survey results in a national overview and presents it to the Department.

4.   There are two types of surveys required – 

• Litter Pollution surveys to determine the extent and severity of litter pollution. 
• Litter Quantification surveys to identify the composition (i.e. the type and origin) of litter pollution prevailing in a particular area.  

5.   The litter quantification surveys identify nine broad categories of litter:

 cigarette related litter

• packaging litter (i.e. takeaway, glass, metal, paper, plastic)
• food litter
• paper litter (e.g. bank slips, bus tickets, newspapers, magazines etc.)
• plastic litter (i.e. non packaging litter e.g. plastic cutlery, toys etc.)
• deleterious litter (e.g. dog fouling, nappies, needles, syringes etc.)
• bulky litter (e.g. household appliances, furniture, etc.)
• sweet related litter
• miscellaneous litter (i.e. items not covered by the other categories e.g. twine, clothes, fabrics etc.)