The recent figure of £858 million pounds per year to clean England's streets is staggering given the current economic climate the country is facing. Here, Keep Britain Tidy's Chief Executive, Phil Barton, discusses how this figure has come to be and what action can be taken to reduce litter and save money
1. How and why do you believe the figure of £858 million for cleaning England’s streets has risen so high?
The rise can probably be put down to a combination of factors.
The long-term contracts councils have for street cleansing rise incrementally and local authorities could also be putting more effort into keeping places clean in a response to local priorities.
2. Tell us more about the campaign to keep Britain Tidy, are you engaging with local authorities to ensure littering is being reduced?
We work with local authorities on all our campaigns. For this campaign we have the support of 47 local authorities. For some of our campaigns we have had over 90 partners and we are constantly working to increase that number. Aside from our campaigning we work closely with councils to find solutions to the specific issues they face in their local areas. This is the consultancy side of Keep Britain Tidy that aims to get to the root of problems such as local areas blighted by problem fly-tipping or low-grade graffiti. Our expert knowledge about local environmental quality is being used by local authorities all over the country to create well-managed neighbourhoods respected and enjoyed by all.
3. Has the increase in safety following recent terrorist attacks affected the number of bins and disposable facilities for litter?
We would always welcome more bins but people should use the bins that already exist. Litter is everyone’s responsibility. If there isn’t a bin handy then we advise that people keep hold of the litter until they get home. People forget that littering is illegal.
4. You have talked in the past about people’s attitudes to littering, what role can schools play in reaching out to children about the potential problems which arise from littering?
We are helping over 14,000 schools in England to become sustainable as part of the Eco-Schools programme that we run. We help schools to make improvements across nine topic areas that include litter as well as biodiversity and energy. Litter is a compulsory learning topic on the programme, and to gain awards pupils are expected to run anti-littering campaigns in their school. The programme is free to join and those registered can benefit from free resources from EDF Energy and their online resource The Pod as well as from Natural England and Homebase. www.eco-schools.org.uk
5. What initiatives are we seeing to help reduce littering?
In September 2008, Keep Britain Tidy launched England’s first ever Big Tidy Up to encourage as many members of the public as possible to carry out a clean up in their local area and help tidy up our country. To date, 20,000 groups have signed up to the Big Tidy Up and more than 72,000 bags of rubbish have been collected (June 2010).
In addition to this, we are working with local authorities on campaigns like the one we launched this week in an effort to encourage people to Get Behind Keep Britain Tidy and their council and make a small individual change that will make a big difference to our country.
the main reason for the increase of litter is a lot of reasons??, i live in the East end and it seems to me its easy for people just to throw the rubbish on the floor give you an example i see someone who was about 2 foot away from a bin and felt he would just throw it on the floor.
the best point is OH not to worry we keep the road sweeper in work
and not bothered.
being lazy