Major chewing gum producers, brought together by the UK Government, have signed up to a new £10m partnership, to be managed by BCC member Keep Britain Tidy, which will remove gum litter from high streets.
Around 87 percent of England’s streets are marked with gum, Keep Britain Tidy’s research shows. The annual clean-up cost has been estimated at £7m.
As part of the new scheme, chewing gum producers including Mars Wrigley, GlaxoSmithKline and Perfetti Van Melle are investing in cleaning up gum litter in towns and cities and behavioural interventions to encourage people to bin their gum.
Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Keep Britain Tidy are delighted to be working with Defra and the chewing gum industry to clean up gum from our streets and, critically, stop it being dropped in the first place.”