Cleanest Town Suitably Trim

The County Meath town of Trim has been announced as the cleanest in Ireland at a ceremony in Dublin on Monday.

The town managed to beat off competition from Swords and Killarney in the 2011 survey of litter levels in 53 towns and cities by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).

Both were among 38 towns to be classed as “Clean to European Norms” as runners up.

This was the first time that Trim, which has been litter free since 2005, had won the IBAL Litter League. It was one of 9 towns to collect a Sustained Excellence award for being litter free for 5 years in a row, the others being Killarney, Cavan, Youghal, Fermoy, Castlebar, Ballina, Monaghan and Dundalk.

An Taisce, who conduct the litter surveys, said in its report on Trim: “The hard work has paid off and the citizens should appreciate what has been achieved. All sites surveyed got the top litter grade. The approach routes were particularly well presented and this very high standard was sustained for all sites surveyed in Trim.”

To mark its success, the town will receive a number of trees for planting locally. These are provided by the Irish Tree Centre, an IBAL member based in County Cork.

Local authority representatives at the ceremony heard from Professor Dr Elke Arendt of University City College Cork, who spoke of advancements made in degradable chewing gum, which, unlike conventional gum, decomposes when deposited on pavements.

IBAL Chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh spoke of such a breakthrough as “a potentially critical milestone in urban litter prevention, and one that needs to be accelerated by a favourable tax policy, be it a tax exemption on the degradable product, or a higher tax on conventional gum.”

(DW/GK)