Ireland's beaches fail the bottle test

IRELAND ranks as one of the worst countries in Europe for the number of discarded drinks containers, especially plastic bottles and tin cans, found along the coastline, an international survey has found.

The survey by Coastwatch Europe last autumn involved 120,000 volunteers checking the coastline in 21 European countries. Data from 15 countries, in a report published yesterday, showed that Ireland ranked second after Spain for drinks containers discarded along the coastline.

The survey looked at coastal pollution under a number of headings: large waste, household rubbish, small litter items, foamed plastic and plastic fishing gear.

It was the seventh such survey since it was first designed and tried in Ireland, by Ms Karin Dubsky in co operation with The Irish Times, in 1987. The Coastwatch Europe network is based at the Environmental Sciences Unit in Trinity College Dublin.

Ireland was found to have, on average, 64 drinks containers per 500 metres of coastline. Spain, Ireland, Poland, France and Lithuania all had, on average, more than 40 per 500 metres, putting them well ahead of other countries surveyed.

By far the biggest proportion of containers found along the Irish coast were plastic bottles, of which an average of 34.2 per 500 metres were found. This made Ireland second worst in Europe in this category after Spain.

"In Ireland, many surveyors noted a change in bottle size, with the introduction of a new small coloured Coca Cola bottle starting in 1994," the report notes, "so the total volume drunk may not have increased, only the number of containers."

Ireland also came second after Spain for the number of cans found per 500 metres of coastline, with 23.5 being found on average. Britain was third, with just under 11 cans per 500 metres of coastline, less than half the Irish score.

Paper containers and glass bottles were the other two, smaller, categories of drinks containers, and in both Ireland scored at around the European average. However, for density of packing straps and can holders found along the coast, Ireland again scored badly, coming second after Lithuania.

For large waste, a breakdown by country was not given. Overall, the survey found that landfill waste, household refuse sacks, ship wreckage and tyres ranked among the most common problems.

Ireland came sixth for the density of bags, boxes or heaps of household waste found between the mean and the spring high water marks along the coast.

With foamed plastic, Ireland ranked among the least polluted countries, although the figures for all countries were high. The same was true for coastline pollution by plastic fishing gear. Small litter was divided into a number of categories. Individual scores for all countries were not given. Overall, wood, paper, plastic, cans, glass, textiles and foamed plastic were the biggest polluters.