A campus in Galway City has finished bottom of a State-wide college litter league, with a verdict of "truly awful" from the judges, who complained of finding "disposable nappies" among the debris there.
The Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology was joined by Sligo IT in the "litter blackspot" category of the survey, conducted by An Taisce on behalf of Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL).
But the assessors reserved their harshest criticism for the Galway campus of GMIT, saying "it was not possible to approach the entrance without walking over a carpet of cigarette butts".
The report added: "There were no facilities for the disposal of same. And as well as the usual litter types, e.g. sweet papers, alcohol cans, chewing gum, and fast food wrappers, there were large amounts of disposable nappies and cigarette cartons."
Sligo IT was dubbed "very disappointing", with An Taisce commenting: "Long-term neglect has resulted in serious littering in the shrubberies and under the trees."
Dublin City University was praised as "excellently maintained".
It was joined by UCC and Maynooth College in the "litter-free" category.
Nine of the 12 institutions surveyed were deemed "moderately littered" or worse, however. The State's largest college, UCD was said to have scored very well, generally, but was let down by its Belfield student residence.
This, said the judges, had "a dreadful air of neglect - the same bins have been broken for over a year and there was an abandoned mattress and a railing strewn on the lawn".
Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of the anti-litter business campaign, expressed disappointment at the results, which suggested that some colleges were dirtier than whole towns.
He urged college authorities to set higher standards by enforcing litter laws on their campuses.
"Our third-level colleges should be faring better," he said. "These areas are not subjected to the same traffic and abuse as entire towns and cities, yet many towns have outperformed them in terms of cleanliness.
"Colleges are microcosms of future society, populated by society's future leaders. The tolerance of litter in evidence here is disappointing."
Irish Business Against Litter was set up in 1996 as an alliance of more than 30 companies campaigning for a clean, litter-free environment.
