Enough gum to cover the Ashton Gate Stadium pitch has been removed from the streets of Bristol. Bristol City Council and Bristol Waste have announced the completion of a project to remove the chewing gum blighting local streets after receiving a £27,500 grant to tackle the issue.
In total 280,000 pieces of gum have been removed by Bristol Waste crews using specialised backpacks. The ‘gum-buster’ backpacks use an eco-friendly sugar-based liquid heated to a high temperature to disintegrate gum stains, leaving behind spotless pavements.
The council was one of 54 across the country that successfully applied to the Chewing Gum Task Force, now in its third year, for funds to clean gum off pavements and prevent it from being littered again. Among the activities cleansing teams carried out over the last few months were:
· 7,000 m2 of pavement cleansed by the Task Force
· 40 ‘Bin Your Gum’ stencils sprayed on pavements
· 70 behaviour changing bin stickers and signs installed around the city centre
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.
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.
Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.
Councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment and sustainability policy committee, said: “It’s fantastic to see the results of the Chewing Gum Task Force’s hard work, which marks an excellent step forward in improving the cleanliness of Bristol’s streets. Residents can now do their bit by always binning their gum, preventing further gum staining and keeping our pavements looking pristine for everyone to enjoy.”
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% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.