Chewing gum blitz to resolve sticky situation in Leeds city centre

Areas of the city centre will be cleared of chewing gum this summer after Leeds City Council successfully secured funding to blitz the problem in busy streets.

The council has been given a grant of £25,701.30 from the national Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, to help clean up gum and reduce gum littering.

The funding will be used to do a deep clean of streets in the city centre and the application of a pavement protector that prevents staining and makes it easier to remove gum in the future. This will be supported by new signage and an extensive behaviour change campaign, urging people to think twice about dropping gum.

Working closely with Leeds Business Improvement District, the deep-clean will take on Call Lane, Duncan Street and Lower Briggate; New York and York Street by the bus station and Cloth Hall Street next to the Corn Exchange.

The cleaning and behaviour change campaign aims to keep the city centre cleaner, safer and more accessible for all, by encouraging the public to dispose of their chewing gum responsibly.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise – has shown that in areas that benefitted from funding, a reduced rate of gum littering of up to 86 per cent was seen in the first two months.

Reductions were still being observed six months after targeted street cleansing and the installation of specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum.

Leeds City Council executive member for environment Councillor James Gibson said:

“We are very pleased to have secured this national funding through Keep Britain Tidy to help remove chewing gum from some of the busiest streets in Leeds city centre.

“While most people dispose of their chewing gum responsibly, discarded gum can have a significant impact on the appearance of public spaces. We would encourage everyone to use the nearest bin so that together we can help keep our city centre clean and welcoming.

“The new signage will also help raise awareness of the importance of looking after our environment and encourage people to play their part in keeping Leeds city centre as clean and attractive as possible for everyone to enjoy.”

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, said:

“While chewing gum litter remains a stubborn eyesore in our public spaces, the good news is that this scheme is already driving major improvements.

“As an environmental charity, we know that every piece of gum dropped irresponsibly damages the environment, taking years to break down naturally, while also leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for costly clean-up operations.

“Everyone in Leeds can play a part in creating cleaner, greener streets for all by binning their gum properly.”

Notes to editors:

The Chewing Gum Task Force: The Chewing Gum Task Force brings together some of the UK’s major chewing gum producers (Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle) in a partnership to remove gum litter from

UK high streets and prevent future littering. The scheme, administered by independent charity Keep Britain Tidy, sees the chewing gum firms invest up to £10million over five years to achieve two objectives; cleaning up historic gum staining and changing behaviour so that more people bin their gum.

Behaviour Change: https://behaviourchange.org.uk/ Behaviour Change is a not-for-profit social enterprise, founded in 2009. They create social and environmental change, with big ideas grounded in behavioural science. Through a five-year innovation programme and collaboration with chewing gum manufacturer Mars Wrigley, they created and tested a range of ways to encourage responsible behaviour, which resulted in local reductions of gum littering by up to 64%. These interventions have now been made available for deployment by councils as part of the Gum Task Force Grant Scheme. Intervention toolkit: https://www.tacklegumlittering.co.uk/

Keep Britain Tidy is a leading environmental charity. We set the standard for the management of parks and beaches, inspire people to be litter-free, to waste less and live more sustainably. We run campaigns and programmes including the Great British Spring Clean, Eco-Schools, Love Parks Week, Buy Nothing New Month, Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces, the Blue Flag/ Seaside Awards for beaches and blue spaces, and the Green Key for sustainable tourism and hospitality. To find out more about Keep Britain Tidy, our campaigns and programmes visit https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact:

Leeds City Council communications and marketing,

Email: communicationsteam@leeds.gov.uk

Tel: 0113 378 6007