The environmental charity Hubbub has launched a new website to help local authorities and other organisations combat litter using various tried and tested ideas.
Artwork for posters and bins, audience insights and ideas for litter interventions are some of the free tools available on the site, which are designed to guide organisations on how to deliver a successful litter campaign in their local area.
McDonald’s has provided funding for five grants of £10,000 to be made available to councils, to help subsidise funding already in place to combat the issue. The grants are available for councils to apply for as long as they provide £5,000 of funding themselves.
Litter costs UK local authorities £699 million annually, excluding spending by other authorities such as Highways England, according to figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
New research from Hubbub revealed that 62% of people feel angry when they see litter on the ground and two in five find it frustrating that there aren’t more bins or campaigns to tackle litter.
Hubbub’s website will share the successes and learnings from previous campaigns from Hubbub which include a project that installed over 5,000 Ballot Bins in 43 countries, which Hubbub said stopped an estimated 15 million cigarette butts from being littered a year.
Another example is The Big Ballot Bin, a solar-powered customisable voting bin. Tested in Manchester and Southampton, litter surveying by Ellipsis Earth showed that the bins also reduced food and drink litter within a 20m radius by 60% and 70% respectively.
Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-founder at Hubbub, said: “We have a wealth of experience in tackling specific types of litter in very targeted environments and are delighted to share our learnings with organisations wanting to develop litter-busting initiatives in their local area.
“Equipped with public polling, audience insights and a library of creative assets and tools, we hope to provide inspiration for the best tactics to use and are thrilled to also offer funding to support this.”
We have a wealth of experience in tackling specific types of litter in very targeted environments.
The Neat Streets website and grant funding are supported by McDonald’s, which has funded projects with Hubbub since 2017. McDonald’s funded the award-winning Neat Streets campaign in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, in partnership with Hubbub and Ellipsis Earth.
The campaign used drone technology to identify problematic areas and target them with playful interventions, resulting in a 75% to 90% reduction of litter in these locations.
Andrew Moys, Vice President for Impact at McDonald’s said: “We are proud of the difference we’ve had working with Hubbub in the communities we serve over the years.
“We’ve learned so much about what works and how we can make it easier for customers and members of the public to do the right thing, and we are pleased to be sharing all this knowledge through the NeatStreets website.”
