Latest on litter
News for those who care about litter!
- National integrated litter campaign
- Short-term campaigns
New report now available - ask your MP to try for Hilary Benn's support
- Anti-litter toolkit for parish councils - FREE download
National integrated litter campaign
CPRE believes there needs to be a fundamental shift from the current messaging model - satellite campaigns implemented by a range of bodies independently - to a model that firmly integrates the messaging, expertise and funding of all those who have a responsiblity to bring about behaviour change.
We are lobbying for a national, long term education campaign, coordinated by Keep Britain Tidy, to be delivered with funding from national government, local government and industry.
The government has agreed to host a round-table discussion to address this, and representtives from national and local government, Keep Britain Tidy, CPRE and the manufacturers and retailers whose products most often end up as litter have agreed to attend.
It is envisaged that a series of discussions will be held in order to decide how such an integrated campaign would work.
Targeting the education system, from reception class to college level, is clearly integral to the long term success of a national behaviour change campaign of this nature.
At the moment, schools can engage with Keep Britain Tidy's eco-schools programme or use resources such as CPRE's Whole School Litter Campaign pack.
However, there is no formal requirement for schools and colleges to educate their charges about litter, and involvement with the eco-schools programme is currently voluntary. This is something CPRE wants to change through this series of round-table discussions.
Currently, campaigns that aim to educate people about littering are conducted in local areas, over a short period of time, by a range of bodies.
Some local councils make money available to run borough-wide campaigns on specific issues such as
- cigarette litter
- dog fouling
- chewing gum
Keep Britain Tidy, the national body for litter, also follows the same model, using its limited funding to run campaigns that target particular types of litterers, such as car drivers or young adults.
Industry bodies form specialist groups and contribute relatively small sums of money to run localised campaigns about their own products - chewing gum manufacturers, for example, with their 'chew it, wrap it, bin it' campaigns.
The results of these campaigns are measured by comparing cleanliness levels before and after the campaign. They often show a good level of improvement - evidence that behaviour campaigns can work.
But because these campaigns are only run over a 3-4 month period, litter levels soon return to their previous heights and behaviour reverts to its pre-campaign type.
The Government recently announced a new initiative on packaging - Making the most of packaging - with a view to reducing, over the next decade, the amount of packaging produced, used and thrown away, and to increase the amount recycled.
We think that a bottle deposit scheme could form an integral part of this initiative and continue to lobby the Government to ensure this potential resource-saving scheme remains on its agenda.
CPRE's research report - Litterbugs: How to deal with the problem of littering
This has been well-received by a range of politicians, local councils and ENCAMS - the national body against litter (which runs Keep Britain Tidy).
The report made 7 recommendations, including a call for a national bottle deposit scheme, greater consistency in the application of penalties for littering and more bins and ashtrays in strategic sites. £500m a year is spent clearing thoughtlessly discarded waste and we must continue our fight to stop these litterbugs from despoiling our shared environments.
> Take a look at the Litterbugs report (opens 4.2Mb PDF)
Handy litter toolkit is now available
To continue the litter theme, my colleague, Louise, and I have just put the finishing touches to a brand new toolkit. We hope it will help parish councils up and down the country in the fight against litter and fly-tipping. If you have links with a local parish council why not ask them to get hold of the toolkit and take action?
* Explore our parish council toolkit (opens a 3.1Mb file)
Updated 19 May 2010