Colchester City Council has completed an initial stage of a chewing gum removal initiative, improving local streets after receiving a £27,461 grant earlier this year to address the issue.
The council was one of 54 across the country to secure funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its third year, to clean gum from pavements and reduce future littering.
So far, the council has focused on North Station Road, Sheepen Road, Middleborough Road, and Sheepen Place, covering over 34,700 square feet – the equivalent of about 35 average UK homes!
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 clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.
Cllr Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Neighbourhood Services and Leisure, said: “The Colchester City Council Neighbourhoods team have done a fantastic job in securing this funding and now cleaning the streets of Colchester.
“It’s important that we continue to tackle littering and keep the city we live and work in clean. Gum littering is a disgrace and there is no excuse for it. Not only is it unsightly, but it harms the environment and the wildlife we share our city with. So please, put your gum in the nearest bin – it does not belong on the floor.”
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.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Thankfully, the majority of people who chew gum dispose of it responsibly. But for those who don’t, cleaning gum and the resulting staining off our pavements costs councils millions of pounds every year.
“We know this issue won’t be solved overnight, even in areas where the gum has been cleaned up, but we’re confident that with innovation, research and small behaviour changes provided through the Chewing Gum Task Force, together we can tackle this sticky issue.”
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.
Page last reviewed: 7 November 2024