A grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, will help Ipswich Borough Council clean up gum and reduce gum littering.
The Council is putting plans in place to remove the chewing gum that blights local streets after receiving a £25,550 grant to tackle the issue.
We are one of 54 local authorities across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, and one of only eight that have achieved the funding three years in a row.
Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by 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.
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.
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 clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.
Councillor Phil Smart, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Environment and Transport, says:
“We’re pleased to have been awarded Chewing Gum Task Force funding – making it a hat trick for our Waste team who have been working tirelessly against chewing gum litter in Ipswich over the last three years.
“This funding will allow us to purchase specialist equipment to remove chewing gum as well as implementing behaviour change signage as we endeavour to stop gum being littered in Ipswich.
“Importantly it will also support our recycling education programme in schools and community groups to show children and young people the impact chewing gum has on our wildlife and our environment, to stop it being dropped in the first place.”
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.
In its second year the Task Force awarded 55 councils a total of £1.56 million, helping clean an estimated 440,000 m2 of pavement - an area equivalent to the Vatican City.
By combining targeted street cleaning with specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum, participating councils achieved reductions in gum littering of up to 60% in the first two months.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said: “Chewing gum litter is highly visible on our high streets and is both difficult and expensive to clean up, so the support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force and the gum manufacturers is very welcome.
“However, once the gum has been cleaned up, it is vital to remind the public that when it comes to litter, whether it’s gum or anything else, there is only one place it should be – in the bin – and that is why the behaviour change element of the Task Force’s work is so important.”
