Council completes chewing gum cleaning project after receiving funding to tackle the issue on Kidderminster’s streets
News release issued:
Wyre Forest District Council has been working to clean up gum and reduce people littering their gum with help from a Chewing Gum Task Force grant, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.
Wyre Forest District Council has announced that it has completed its work to remove the chewing gum blighting local streets after receiving a £27,500 grant to tackle the issue earlier this year.
The Council was one of 52 across the country that successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and prevent further gum littering.
Over the past few months, the Council’s Street Cleansing team has removed gum from pavements around Kidderminster College using specialist equipment funded by the grant. Eye catching signage has also been installed in the town centre, which encourages people to bin their gum.
The Task Force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, with an investment of up to £10 million spread over five years.
Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.
Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise - has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after the clean-up and installation of prevention materials.
Councillor Nathan Desmond, Wyre Forest District Council’s Cabinet Member for Operational Services said:
“We were extremely grateful to receive grant funding for this clean-up project. The results have been fantastic and make a real difference to the town centre. Binning chewing gum is a small, easy behaviour change people can make which helps keep our streets clean and looking good for everyone.”
Estimates suggest that the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.
A spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy said:
“Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces – though thankfully the scheme is leading to significant reductions. People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up.”
By combining targeted street cleaning with specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum, participating councils last year achieved reductions in gum littering of up to 60% in the first two months.