Navan in Co Meath is the Republic's most litter-clogged town, according to the first round of 2005 Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) survey, announced this morning.
The survey of 57 towns and suburbs with populations of more than 6,000 will be repeated twice this year to determine the annual winners and losers.
In the first survey of 2005 14 areas across the State, or a quarter of towns surveyed, were classed as litter blackspots.
The results were quickly rejected by Navan Chamber of Commerce, which described the survey as "rubbish".
Priscilla Connolly of Navan Chamber of Commerce expressed scepticism. "We would be curious to know how IBAL came to this conclusion as Navan has a vibrant programme of cleanliness with hanging flower baskets and window boxes throughout the town," she said.
"In fact another 250 hanging baskets are about to go in. The council spends €300,000 a year on street cleaning so we would have to apologise for the pun but declare this survey to be rubbish."
IBAL, which has 30 member companies employing more than 70,000 people, also said industrial estates were nearly three times more likely to be litter blackspots than other areas.
The survey particularly singled out IDA estates in Enniscorthy and Gorey, Co Wexford, which it described as "riddled with litter, hugely neglected and treated with total disregard".
In another major finding IBAL said local authorities needed to rethink the management of recycling centres, more than half of which it claimed were heavily littered.
Twelve areas achieved litter-free status, meaning they are deemed clean by European standards. Top of this list is Carlow, followed by Dundalk, Cavan and Longford. And Bray, Co Wicklow, previously nominated as the State's most litter-strewn town, has emerged as "litter free" this year.
For the first time the survey broke city areas into suburban towns, allowing Cork city to show improvements while the Mayfield Dillons Cross area in the city was described as the Republic's second most littered town. It was followed by Gorey, Co Wexford, and Finglas in Co Dublin.
The number of towns monitored this year increased by 27 to 57, making this litter survey the largest undertaken in the Republic. Dublin city centre, which has fared badly in the past, yielded its best result yet by being classed as "moderately littered".
No one from Meath County Council, which is based in Navan, was available at the time of writing.
According to IBAL chairman Dr Tom Cavanagh, potential investors in Ireland are being met with a "landscape of litter" in many areas.
"We are not showing our best face, but a dirty face to the commercial interests which are vital to our economy," he said.
