Keeping streets clean matters. According to the Local Government Association, councils spend almost £1 bn a year on tackling litter and fly-tipping, at a time when they face difficult choices due to budget cuts. Incidents of fly-tipping have increased by 20% in 2014 – last year there were 852,000 cases – while funding for street cleaning has fallen for the past four years. According to Clean Up Britain, 48% of people still admit to dropping rubbish on the streets (pdf), with chewing gum and cigarette stubs the main offenders.
But councils are fighting back. From whodunnit campaigns, and CCTV monitoring, to litter raffles and animated games, councils across the UK are using unorthodox methods to make people think differently about the state of our streets and what can be done to keep them clean.
Naming and shaming
One recent campaign by Rhondda Cynon Taff council plastered the faces of litter louts on the council’s website, asking the public to identify them. In its first two weeks, the “Who done it” campaign successfully identified 10 people captured on CCTV, who each faced a penalty of £75.
Fast fines
Several councils are linking up with private security companies. Ealing recentlybegan working with Kingdom Security as part of the council’s environmental enforcement scheme, which trawls the streets to deliver on-the-spot fines of between £80 and £100. Kingdom takes an undisclosed share of every fine it issues, so while the scheme costs the council nothing, it costs the litter droppers dearly.
Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for transport, environment and leisure, told the Ealing Times that the council spends £4.5m every year cleaning up after people who litter the streets with rubbish, chewing gum, spitting or dog mess. He said residents were “sick” of paying to clean up the litter through their taxes.
Last year, Wolverhampton City council and Kingdom Security issued more than £25,000 worth of fines . For each fine issued, the council received £30, and the rest went directly to the security firm.
Treats for tidiness
Swansea council – which spends £2.5m annually to clean up litter and pet waste – launched a raffle in 2014 to give people who correctly disposed of their litter the chance to win Amazon vouchers. The free raffle tickets were handed out by the council’s cleaning staff whenever they spotted people doing the right thing with their litter.
Pennies for plastic
The government hopes that the recent introduction of the 5p plastic bag in England will lead to an 80% reduction in plastic bag use in supermarkets, and a 50% fall on the high street . But litter from fast food outlets remains a key concern, increasing by 20% between March 2014 and 2015. A study by Keep Britain Tidy found that 30% of all litter issues occur in the most deprived areas of the UK, where population density and the number of takeaway outlets is greater. This is in comparison to just 3% of litter issues occurring in the most wealthy areas .
Starving seagulls
In Wales – where plastic bag use has dropped by 71% since the 5p charge was introduced in 2011 – the measures used by councils to increase awareness of litter extends to an online game called ‘Don’t Feed Simon’, where children must pick up as many discarded bags of chips as they can in 30 seconds before Simon the seagull can get to them. Players can share their score on Twitter and Facebook using the #DontFeedSimon hashtag, for a chance to win a prize. The game was developed by Keep Wales Tidy and has financial backing from the 5p plastic bag charge paid by Tesco customers.
