Kerry’s largest towns excel in anti-litter league despite collapse of reusable coffee cup scheme

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

New data shows Kerry’s largest towns are now clean by European standards, marking a major improvement from previous years.

Killarney is ranked seventh out of a survey of 40 Irish towns for cleanliness, while Tralee is placed 16th in the Anti-Litter League table.

While Killarney retained its position as being ‘cleaner than European norms’, Tralee saw a major improvement, being recategorized from “moderately littered” to clean, leaping up 11 places.

The Anti-Litter League is run by the business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) which conducts regular surveys of 40 towns and cities in Ireland.

This year, Sligo replaces Naas as the country’s cleanest town, while Limerick’s Galvone, Mahon in Cork and Tallaght in Dublin are among the urban areas attaining clean status. Significantly, no town or city was judged “seriously littered”.

Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce said the achievement of the town retaining its place in the top 10 was a “wonderful tonic” at the start of the new year.

“Great credit is due to Killarney Municipal District Council and its dedicated outdoor crew who work with such dedication, passion and purpose to ensure the town is presented at its best at all times,” said Chamber President Johnny McGuire.

The chamber said it was particularly gratifying that the town centre streets – including Main Street – received the highest possible grade given the huge footfall and the thousands of people passing through every day.

Despite the rosy picture, Killarney did slip three places from its ranking of fourth in 2024, while the report also referred to the reusable coffee cup scheme.

With coffee cups remaining one of the most commonly found forms of litter, evident in one fifth of all sites surveyed, IBAL spokesperson Mr Conor Hogan urged the government to introduce a levy.

“A real disappointment in a generally positive year has been the likely collapse of reusable coffee cup schemes in towns such as Killarney,” said Mr Hogan.

“It is apparent that such schemes will only work with statutory backing. As our data today bears out, without Government intervention, coffee cups will remain an unsightly and entirely unnecessary blot on the landscape across our towns.

“The prevarication from the Government on the issue is striking - a levy was promised all of four years ago – and sends out a worrying signal. Weaning ourselves off single-use coffee cups should not be such a big deal.”

The results come just a few months after Tralee Tidy Towns won big at the SuperValu Tidy Towns awards, taking home the prize of Ireland’s Tidiest Large Urban Centre 2025 and a €5,000 cash prize.

Following the awards ceremony in October last year, Martha Farrell from Tralee Tidy Towns said she was “over the moon” with the result.

“There’s been phenomenal work done by volunteers and stakeholders in the county over the past few years, but we honestly never expected this,” she said.

“We want to keep the momentum going now and drive on and really improve Tralee. That’s our ultimate aim with Tralee Tidy Towns.”