Liverpool City Council is putting plans in place to remove chewing gum from the city’s streets after receiving a £27,000 grant to tackle the issue.
The Council is one of 52 across the country that have successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its fourth year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered again.
Over the past three years, the Council has been awarded approximately £80,000 to help tackle chewing gum litter. So far, the funding has been spent on specialist machinery and staff to remove chewing gum from the streets, with a high focus in residential areas.
The additional grant will be used to tackle gum on a larger scale in high profile areas of the city, as well as engaging with residents and visitors about the issue.
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.
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.
Following the success of the past two years, the Council was asked to take part in a night-time economy pilot last winter, focused on tackling chewing gum litter left in the city centre during the evenings.
The Council installed large bins in Concert Square and Matthew Street to increase the visibility of bins and capacity for rubbish collection throughout the night. The six-week pilot proved to be a success, with the bins heavily used by people in the area, reducing the amount of litter on the streets.
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 per cent of England’s streets and 99 per cent of retail sites are stained with gum.
Tackling chewing gum that has been thrown away incorrectly is just one of the littering issues the Council is focusing on following the publication of its Recycling and Waste Strategy.
The strategy looks to promote positive waste behaviours across Liverpool, including decreasing the amount of litter and fly-tipping on the streets.
Due to increased focus on littering by the Council and Liverpool Streetscene Services (LSSL), enquiries around littering have fallen by 25 per cent over the past two years.
Since 2022, the Council has joined forces with Keep Britain Tidy to launch Keep Liverpool Tidy, which has seen a 200 per cent increase in community litter picking so far.
Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities, Neighbourhoods and Streetscene said: “We know that one of the most unpleasant and expensive examples of littering in Liverpool is used chewing gum being left on our streets.
“That’s why we welcome this funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force for the third year in a row. This support has already made a significant difference – not only in the city centre, but also in neighbourhoods across the north and south of Liverpool. However, our work is far from over.
“There’s simply no excuse for littering. Every piece of rubbish, including used chewing gum, should be disposed of properly, whether in the public bins provided or taken home.
“If we all took responsibility for our litter, the resources currently spent clearing it could instead be directed toward improving other essential Council services.”
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, 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.”
