Would statistics lend weight to your anti-litter campaigning?

Sometimes you need to back up your requests for authorities to take litter problems seriously.

Here are some hard facts you can use!

Litter

• It costs councils £780 million pounds a year to clear up litter
  ... that equates to £2.1 million per day
• Litter being dropped in the UK has multiplied by five since the 1960s, and an estimated 25 million tonnes is dropped every year. It's mostly food and drink packaging, and weighs as much as 62,500 jumbo jets
• In 2007 more than 69,000 animals were killed or injured by litter in Britain
• Every weekend, 1.3 million pieces of rubbish are dropped on motorways and major trunk roads across England. Over a year, this adds up to 6.7.2 million items of rubbish, and a third of drivers admit to throwing litter while on the road

Fly-tipping

• Local authorities estimate that the cost of clearing illegally dumped waste in 2006/07 was £73.7 million
• In 2005/06 it cost more than £47 million to clear fly-tipping from agricultural land alone
• Rises in Landfill Tax (which will double to £48 per tonne in 2010) are making it ever more expensive to dispose of rubbish properly

Fiona Cowan     25/4/08  ..updated 19 May 2010
With grateful thanks to The Clerk magazine, March 2008 issue.

The Clerk is published bi-monthly by the Society of Local Council Clerks, at a cover price of £5 per issue or free as part of a Parish or Town Clerk's membership of the SLCC.