The Chewing Gum Task Force has announced that 54 councils across the UK will receive a share of grants totalling over £1.2 million to target chewing gum litter.
Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy announced the 54 councils that will receive a share of the grants, as well as signage to discourage people from littering.
Bristol, Walsall, Sunderland and Bury will all receive grants in the third round of funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force.
According to Keep Britain Tidy, estimates suggest that councils spend around £7 million cleaning up littered gum and chewing gum litter affects 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites.
Commenting on the funding, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, said: “Gum litter makes streets look dirty and uncared for. Our own research shows three-quarters of sites we surveyed are blighted by chewing gum staining, and we know that cleaning it up costs councils – and therefore council tax-payers – millions of pounds.
“That’s why we are delighted to be administering the third wave of this much-needed support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force.”
That’s why we are delighted to be administering the third wave of this much-needed support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force.
Launched in 2021, the Chewing Gum Task Force was established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and is administered by Keep Britain Tidy, with funding provided by gum producers.
The Task Force aims to help councils clean gum off pavements and put in measures to stop it being dropped in the first place.
Chewing gum producers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, have pledged up to £10 million over five years via the scheme to tackle gum littering.
The latest round of funding will provide grants of up to £27,500 for cleansing or the purchasing of cleaning equipment alongside a fully funded bespoke gum litter prevention package.
In its first two years between 2022 and 2023, the task force awarded grants totalling approximately £2.5 million to almost 100 councils across the UK.
Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – found participating councils reduced gum littering by between 60% and 80% in the first two months.
While the standard intervention saw a 16% reduction in gum littering, the areas where the pavement coating had been applied saw a 31% reduction, Keep Britain Tidy said.
Councils reported cleaning an estimated 440,000 m2 of pavements and all councils said their grant helped them to effectively tackle gum litter.
Naomi Jones, corporate affairs director at Mars Wrigley UK, commented: “Mars Wrigley is proud to invest in litter prevention and education. The Task Force has already made significant progress, supporting almost 100 councils and cleaning nearly 3 million square meters of streets.”
