Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen
An additional thousands of pieces of chewing gum have been removed from Union Street thanks to a grant administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.
The £27,500 grant, from the Chewing Gum Task Force, contributed towards additional cleaning and signage aimed at preventing people from littering again – estimates suggest the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is about £7million.
Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Ian Yuill said: “This additional action to remove chewing gum really helps with the shared aim of improving the city centre. The area should be pleasant and attractive for the benefit of all businesses, visitors and residents.
“The £27,500 grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force is a welcome boost to enable more cleaning and to introduce signage aimed at preventing the unacceptable practice of discarding chewing gum. The collective work is important and will hopefully be able to make a lasting difference.”
Aberdeen City Council Net Zero, Environment and Transport vice convener Councillor Miranda Radley said: “The Council’s cleansing team work hard keeping Union Street free of litter.
“We’d ask people as always not to drop litter, including chewing gum, as it is unsightly and its removal takes time and money.”
Aberdeen City Council was one of 52 local authorities across the country which successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year and funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle with an investment of up to £10million spread over five years.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “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.”
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.