Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council was delighted to see the town of Dún Laoghaire finish second out of the 40 towns and cities surveyed across the country – the town’s highest ever finish – in the most recent Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) rankings.

The results of the survey show Dún Laoghaire was awarded the ‘Cleaner than European Norms’ classification by the judging panel and provides further evidence of the Council’s commitment to maintaining a clean county.

The Council currently employs 59 staff in their cleansing section providing services such as graffiti removal, support for community clean-ups, emptying of litter bins, street sweeping, weed control, gully cleaning and the removal of abandoned cars.

Eighteen of these staff concentrate solely on cleaning the roads and footpaths throughout the county using 6 large, 2 mid-size and 2 small road sweepers.

Along with all of the other major town centres in the county, the streets in Dún Laoghaire are swept 7 days a week, with a dedicated pedestrian green machine also working in the town on a seven day rota.

Our recent county-wide installation of new solar powered, compacting ‘Smart Bins’ – which monitor real time levels of waste and inform staff when individual bins need to be emptied – has helped streamline our cleansing service.

The overall litter bin capacity has increased from 45,000 litres to over 250,000 litres, with a consequential reduction in energy output from the cleansing fleet by over 85,000 kWh per year through reduced travel costs.

Commenting on the results Deputy Mary Mitchell O’Connor congratulated the staff in the cleansing section for their hard work and said: “Projects such as the People’s Park, the Metals, Moran Park and the LexIcon are shining examples of not only the staff’s hard work but also the commitment of the business community and residents to continue to keep Dun Laoghaire litter free and are a credit to the community.”