Minister Smyth announces the results of the 2022 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System

Minister of State for the Environment, Climate and Communications with responsibility for the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth, has (today, 9 November 2023) announced the publication of the 2022 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) results. The system results provide important statistical data on the extent, causes and composition of litter in Ireland, enabling local authorities to manage litter pollution in a systematic and structured manner.

In announcing the publication of the 2022 results, Minister Smyth acknowledged the important role being played by both local authorities and local communities in tackling Ireland’s litter challenges.

The Minister said:

Cigarette-related litter continues to be the largest single category of litter pollution in the locations surveyed.

This is being tackled under one of the requirements of the Single Use Plastics Directive, which was adopted in 2019 and transposed into national law under the Single Use Plastics Regulations 2021. The aim of the directive is to prevent and reduce the impact of single-use plastic on the environment, to be achieved through a framework of measures which includes market restrictions, product and labelling requirements, awareness raising and the introduction of new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes.

The EPR scheme for cigarette filter products containing plastic was approved by Minister Smyth in January of this year and requires importers and producers who place tobacco filters containing plastic on the Irish market to become members and contribute towards costs related to litter clean-up and awareness-raising.

Other measures being taken to combat some of the most prevalent forms of litter include:

• a Deposit Return Scheme for beverage bottles and cans, which will greatly increase the number of these items collected for recycling and greatly reduce the number becoming litter. The scheme was launched on 28 November 2022 and Re-turn, the DRS operator, is continuing to develop a series of measures over the course of this year in preparation for the "go live" date in early 2024
• the forthcoming "Coffee Cup Levy", which will tackle the issue of how millions of single-use cups are sent for disposal or become litter each year. The levy on single-use cups is being introduced later this year to incentivise people to make alternative choices, such as using reusable cups
• other Extended Producer Responsibility schemes will be established for single-use items containing plastic, in addition to the existing schemes for tobacco filters and single use packaging items (such as food and beverage cup containers, packets and wrappers, and plastic carrier bags)

Minister Smyth added:

The NLPMS results indicate that the percentage of unpolluted (LPI 1) areas has decreased from 22.9% in 2021 to 22.1% in 2022.

A comparison of the results from 2021 to 2022 indicates that the percentage of slightly polluted (LPI 2) areas has increased from 57.1% in 2021 to 58.0% in 2022.

The percentage of moderately polluted areas (LPI 3) has increased slightly from 16.9% in 2021 to 17.0% in 2022.

The percentage of significantly polluted areas (LPI 4) has decreased from 2.8% in 2021 to 2.5% in 2022.

Grossly polluted areas (LPI 5) remained the same at 0.3% in 2022.

The percentage of unpolluted (LPI 1) and slightly polluted (LPI 2) areas combined has increased very slightly (by 0.1%) from 2021 to 2022, thus demonstrating that there has been a slight decrease in litter pollution from 2021 to 2022.

Litter from schools/school children has decreased from 4.6% in 2021 to 3.6% in 2022.

Passing pedestrians continue to constitute the greatest single causative factor of litter pollution, accounting for 41.1% across all local authorities in 2022.

The constituent components and the causative factors of litter pollution nationally remain relatively constant across all local authority types from 2021 to 2022. Cigarette-related litter and chewing gum litter remain the largest and second largest constituent elements of litter pollution nationally.

The 2022 NLPMS Results are now available in full on litter.ie and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications website while the following Note to Editors explains key elements of the system.

Tobin Consulting Engineers were appointed by the department to function as the Litter Monitoring Body (LMB) for the period 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 and following a tender competition, were recently reappointed for the period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 to continue the development of the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) which was established in 1999 and to co-ordinate local authority implementation of same. The NLPMS generates, by means of local authority surveys (over 5,000 in 2022), reliable data to enable each local authority to measure, accurately over time, changes in the extent and composition of litter pollution in their functional areas, thus enabling more effective litter management planning.

The system requires local authorities to:

• identify/map the potential sources of litter in their functional areas
• use this data to identify survey locations to determine the composition and extent of litter pollution in their areas
• carry out a series of surveys annually, the results of which can be compared to the "benchmark" or previous years’ survey results in order to measure progress in tackling litter, and to complete the appropriate survey forms for return to the LMB for analysis/assessment

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

• reports back to each local authority with its assessment of their survey data
• collates the survey results in a national overview and presents it to the department

There are two types of surveys conducted by local authorities:

• Litter Pollution Surveys to determine the extent and severity of litter pollution
• Litter Quantification Surveys to identify the composition (that is, the type and origin) of litter pollution prevailing in a particular area

The litter quantification surveys identify nine broad categories of litter:

• cigarette-related litter
• packaging litter
• food-related litter
• sweet-related litter
• paper litter
• plastic litter (that is, non packaging litter, for example plastic cutlery, toys, and so on)
• deleterious litter (for example, dog fouling, nappies, needles, syringes, and so on)
• large litter items (for example, household appliances, furniture, and so on)
• miscellaneous litter (that is, items not covered by the other categories, for example, twine, clothes, fabrics, and so on)

The initial series of surveys conducted in 2000/2001 allowed local authorities to establish “benchmark” assessments of the extent and composition of litter pollution in their functional areas, while the comparison of annual survey results with these benchmark surveys has allowed progress to be measured since then. The analysis of survey data enables local authorities to assess the effectiveness of their litter management strategies on an ongoing basis.

The data produced through the NLPMS surveys enables local authorities to identify:

• the extent and severity of litter pollution in their functional area
• the types and most likely sources and causes of litter
• the changes in litter levels from location to location and over time
• the location of litter black spots
• the impact of new anti-litter measures

The National Litter Pollution Monitoring System is an environmental management tool that enables local authorities to tackle litter more effectively, by providing a framework for consistent and accurate self-assessment.