A LOAD OF RUBBISH SOLUTIONS TO A COMMON, COSTLY PROBLEM

Every day in the UK, two million pieces of litter are dropped, a figure that continues to rise. But why is this the case? Are people inconsiderate of the effect that littering has or is the problem just as simple as there not being enough bins?

Britain has been referred to as the ‘Trash Can’ of Europe as it is one of the continents most littered nations. Despite longterm hand-wringing by a string of politicians keen to make an impact with the electorate, the numbers are getting worse; more litter on the streets, more fly tipping, higher cost of cleaning. The cost to the taxpayer for street cleaning is currently £1bn a year. There is no doubt that this money could be better spent but as litter doesn’t take care of itself, councils are left with little choice.

Fly tipping is a very common form of littering and it occurs mostly on our motorways. There is a punishment for fly tipping, a £50,000 fine or 12 months’ imprisonment, however, instances continue to rise as does the clean-up bill - £49.8m in 2015/16. So, is it that people just don’t care or does fly tipping occur because proper collection by councils is interrupted, people aren’t aware of the law, or costs of proper disposal is not justified?

According to a report from UCL, although there are increasing instances where a single black bag is abandoned on the roadside, it is far more common to see amounts consistent with a small car load, car boot load and transit van load, as the council designates amounts. This and follow-up interviews report that the fly tippers are mainly small businesses that can’t afford or don’t want to pay commercial waste costs. Trades people interviewed stated that local practices regarding waste disposal may make them more expensive than a competitor which they saw as unfair, they didn’t see the benefit in buying a waste carrier licence, and the costs for disposal in general were by far the biggest motivators.

For individuals the biggest motivator was convenience; if the local tip was closed, the queues too long, or there was no available transportation to the tip, people reported they were more likely to fly tip. Although the figure remains low at 1% of householders.

The UCL report finds that the best methods to tackle fly tipping are to increase the difficulty and risk (cameras, patrols, social approbation) and reducing the reward (lower costs of disposing properly). Reducing or amending the cost of proper waste disposal may seem counter-intuitive to cash strapped councils, but the loss of revenue may be made up with the reduction of costs for dealing with fly tipping.

Littering is also proving difficult to curb. Wrappers, gum, food and cigarette butts are all litter, and an education campaign may be beneficial with reducing these numbers.

Many people consider dropping food on the floor to ‘not count’ however food attracts rats and other vermin, and animals native to the UK high streets generally don’t eat apple cores which means they don’t break down quickly and need removal. This lack of awareness when people think they are feeding wildlife, has a large impact on the amount of litter dropped.

More litter that people think doesn’t count, is cigarette butts. Cigarette butts When looking at a beach, there may be ample bins for users 90% of the time, however in hot days during summer holidays when the tourists flock, there may need to be four or five times as many bins. Lee Cairns, Director of JM Clark, suggests that “councils should look to develop a strategy to handle the increase with either portable additional bins, or increased collections that take place throughout the day.”

Councils have the power to issue fines to people who litter, up to £80 which can rise to £2,500 if found guilty in court. They also have a duty to handle litter clean up and members of the public can report them for not doing so. The difficulty comes in proving who littered. A family in a park, surrounded by wrappers, may look like the obvious culprits but proving that they didn’t just chose to sit down in a spot surrounded by rubbish that was already there is difficult. If littering became more socially unacceptable and are the most littered item on the planet; 4.5tn butts per year. Many smokers think of them as bio-degradable, however they are formed of microplastics which take years to break down, and they contain thousands of chemicals that can kill plants and animals when they leach into the soil, are eaten, or used as lining for nests.

Investing in ballot bins may be an easy way to cut down on cigarette butts. The new voting bins for cigarette collection have been very effective and are shown to cut littering of butts by 46%. Hopefully someone can come up with an idea for voting with used gum!

Anecdotally, it seems that another issue affecting street litter is collection. Councils have cut spending on collections services which seems to be very visible when looking at an overflowing bin, surrounded by rubbish. This is more apparent when an area is used intensively for a short period. people felt emboldened to approach litterers, the disapproval and comments from society may prevent incidences of blatant littering.

In the UK it is estimated that from all the British households we build up a mass of 26m tonnes of waste each year, and food waste accounts for seven million tonnes of this, the majority of which could have been eaten. This waste includes 3 million unopened yoghurts each year and 600,000 eggs each day. Germany, Austria and South Korea are the world leaders in recycling with 60 – 70% of their waste recycled, compared to 45% in the UK.

It would seem that littering, and waste in general, is a cultural issue in the UK, and can best be curbed using a variety of solutions; innovative and engaging waste disposal, lower costs on commercial waste disposal, increased collection, strategies for tip opening days, and most importantly, education.

Written by students George Green Reece Gowardun and Jack Fox