Selected locations in Waterford City and County face random checks for litter this summer. This is designed to assess the progress of the county's campaign to be pronounced litter-free.
An Taisce is to conduct the first of three litter surveys, acting as an independent monitoring agency on behalf of the Irish Business Against Litter Organisation.
IBAL, which represents major business and commercial interests, has undertaken to supply a £1 million advance factory to the county if it achieves litter-free status within a year.
As part of the stringent evaluation criteria laid down, An Taisce will conduct outdoor litter surveys from now to April next year. Representative locations chosen include the city, a selection of towns and villages, rural areas, non-coastal tourism locations and popular beaches.
Trained surveyors will allocate a "cleanliness grade" to each site, on a points system. Then an overall "county cleanliness rating" will be decided.
An Taisce already has a national monitoring responsibility under the Blue Flag beach monitoring scheme.
After IBAL issued the challenge last May and announced the £1 million incentive, Waterford County Council and Corporation jointly initiated a multi-pronged litter action campaign and set up structures to tackle the litter problem.
The council already spends about £250,000 annually on cleaning streets and the countryside.
The corporation, which incurs even higher costs in cleaning the city, has set up recycling depots and its litter wardens are involved in an educational programme with schools.
The campaign also involves the introduction of specific bye-laws and the establishment of a litter control office in Waterford.
The chairman of IBAL, Mr Tom Cavanagh, said Waterford was selected for this initiative because of the clear commitment of its local authorities to litter prevention.
It was hoped that this would be the first of many counties to tackle the litter problem in a meaningful way by linking it directly to the future well-being of the community and the local economy.