Ireland’s tidiest and most littered towns have been revealed

Coffee cups and cigarette butts remain a major litter issue nationwide.

A new survey on littering by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) for 2026 has been released, with Sligo retaining its title of Ireland's cleanest town.

The town was praised by An Taisce, which conducts the survey, for its clean roads, 'exceptionally freshly presented' retail park, and 'complete absence of litter' at the Great War Memorial Garden.

Monaghan, Leixlip, Waterford took paces 1-4 on the list, with Ballinasloe, Carrick on Shannon, Gorey tying in fifth, all being deemed 'cleaner than European Norms'.

On the other end of things, for the first time, just one of the 40 surveyed locations was deemed littered.

Limerick City was ranked at the bottom of the list after being found to be substantially littered.

11 towns fell under the 'moderately littered', those being: Clonmel, Fermoy, Kilkenny, Cork Northside, Galway Inner City – Ballybane, Dundalk, Ballymun, Dublin City Centre, Tallaght, Limerick City South – Galvone, Dublin North Inner City, and Portlaoise.

Despite remaining in the category, Dublin’s north inner city and Cork’s northside achieved their best-ever survey results.

Litter levels were on a par with last year overall, with 27 towns getting the clean title. A lot of work is still to be done, particularly with coffee cups and cigarette butts.

The littering of coffee cups was found to be at its highest level in three years, making it one of the main sources of litter on our streets, just behind sweet papers, fast food packaging, plastic bags, and cigarette butts.

"Talk of a ‘latte levy’ has all but vanished, yet coffee cup litter clearly has not. The government's inaction on this persistent problem is baffling,” said Conor Horgan from IBAL.

Additionally, the study also found a significant increase in cigarette butt litter compared to last year. IBAL has warned that due to butts being a toxic single-use plastic, they contaminate the marine and land environment.

“The job’s not done, but across the country, local authorities appear to have upped their game when it comes to tackling persistently littered sites and dumping in our towns and cities."

Here is the full ranking:

Cleaner than European Norms

1. Sligo
2. Monaghan
3. Leixlip
4. Waterford City
5. Ballinasloe
6. Carrick on Shannon
7. Gorey

Clean to European Norms

8. Cavan
9. Killarney
10. Roscommon
    T11. Dungarvan
    T11. Newbridge
    T11. Swords
11. Longford
12. Mullingar
13. Ballina
14. Cork City Centre
15. Navan
16. Ennis
17. Tralee
18. Letterkenny
19. Bray
20. Mahon
21. Athlone
22. Carlow
23. Galway City Centre
24. Drogheda

Moderately Littered

28. Clonmel
29. Fermoy
30. Kilkenny
31. Cork Northside
32. Galway Inner City – Ballybane
33. Dundalk
34. Ballymun
35. Dublin City Centre
36. Tallaght
37. Limerick City South – Galvone
38. Dublin North Inner City
39. Portlaoise

Littered

40. Limerick City Centre