Carlow Town has been announced the winner of the inaugral Anti-Litter League at an awards ceremony in Dublin today.
Fermoy in Co Cork came second and Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh was in third place.
In all, six towns fought for top spot in the league after achieving a litter-free status. They were Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Enniskillen, Fermoy and Wexford.
The Anti-Litter League, organised by Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), assessed towns throughout Ireland for litter levels based on four surveys taken during the year.
The final league table showed the majority of towns were getting cleaner with two thirds of the towns classified as "Litter Free" or "Moderately Littered".
However, 10 of the 29 towns were deemed 'heavily' or 'very heavily' littered. Drogheda, Longford and the Liberties/Coombe area of Dublin were at the foot of the league table with a 'very heavily' littered rating.
The surveys were conducted by An Taisce in accordance with international standards whereby 80 points or over (out of 100) is considered litter-free.
Dr Tom Cavanagh of IBAL said: "The results bear out IBAL's belief that openly publishing the performance of one local authority against another is an effective means of energising them into action on litter."
"The results also demonstrate that litter can be tackled quickly and inexpensively if a focus is put on it," he added.
