Chewing gum cleaning blitz complete thanks to national funding
Wirral Council has now completed a dedicated project aimed at tackling chewing gum left on local streets thanks to the support of a Chewing Gum Task Force grant, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy
The council was one of 52 across the country that successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year, and received £27,500 in funding for use solely to clean gum off pavements and prevent further gum littering.
The focus on the project in Wirral this year was on shopping areas in Moreton, Pensby, Irby. Cleansing teams used specialist equipment to remove the worst areas of chewing gum found on pavements and also shared Keep Britain Today signage reminding people not to drop their gum on the floor. Other areas of Wirral were targeted with previous grant awards.
We are grateful to have given a share of this dedicated funding to allow cleansing teams to tackle some of the areas most blighted by this issue in Wirral. We know it is a problem in other parts of Wirral too, but although the funding meant we could only address a limited number of areas for removal this time around, promoting the work that has been done give us an opportunity to remind everyone that chewing gum is litter that lingers - and it is essential people dispose of it properly in the bin.
The Chewing Gum Task Force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, who between them are investing up to £10 million on the issue, 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.
Estimates suggest 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.
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.
