A load of rubbish in war on litter bugs

Jun 9 2008 by Liz Hands, The Journal

SHOCK tactics were employed at the weekend in a bid to stop people littering. South Tyneside Council’s Blitz It street cleaning team piled up the rubbish collected over the last week from three town centre streets in South Shields.

The bagged litter went on show in King Street in the town.

It costs the council £2m a year to clean up after litter bugs.

“We hope that people will have been shocked by the display and that they take the point on board,” said the council’s assistant head of streetscape Kevin Wallace.

“The town centre is the shop window for visitors to South Shields and we wanted to make a point and show people how much litter we have to contend with and how much it costs everybody.

“Litter is a massive problem. A lot of it is habit with people doing what they have done for years, but it is unacceptable.

“We see it as a challenge to change people’s behaviour and stop them littering in the first place. The public are very supportive of any action we take to prevent litter.”

Mr Wallace said that 70% of the town centre litter was smoking-related, with food packaging and chewing gum next.

In the last year the council has handed out 5,000 “stubbies”, or portable ash trays, to smokers, with 2,000 being distributed last week.

Wardens have also served 130 £50 fixed penalty fines to litterers over the last 12 months.

A campaign has also been launched by Easington Council in County Durham to combat chewing gum litter.

Research by environmental charity ENCAMS found that chewing gum litter was present in 95% of areas surveyed across Britain, with the national cost of dealing with the problem estimated to be more than £400m.