Waste and recycling
Sticky issue of chewing gum to be tackled thanks to £25,000 funding
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Walsall Council is on a mission to clear streets in Walsall town centre of chewing gum with the help of two new gum-cleaning machines.
The council has secured £25,663 in funding from Keep Britain Tidy through the Chewing Gum Task Force initiative. This will be used to clean up Walsall town centre and promote messaging to keep the town centre clean.
The funding has been used to purchase two gum-busting machines, allowing council operatives to tackle the blight of gum waste in areas surrounding Park Street, Bridge Street, and several other main town centre streets.
“ I am delighted this grant has been secured and is being put to good use. Chewing gum stains are unpleasant to see and impact the pride we feel for our town centre.
“Initially, the new machines will be used to clean up a part of the town centre. They will then be used on a rolling basis to keep the area looking clean. We will also be putting up signage to deter people from disposing of their gum on our streets. “
According to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77 per cent of England’s streets and 99 per cent of retail sites are stained with gum.
Training to use the new equipment took place on 2 September 2024, with the clean-up to be completed by 31 October 2024.
Walsall Council is one of 54 to successfully apply for funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force, established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The scheme is sponsored by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle.
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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 new 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 £10 million over five years to achieve two objectives; cleaning up historic gum staining and changing behaviour so that more people bin their gum.
In the two years of the scheme, specially designed signage to encourage people to bin their gum, combined with targeted street cleaning by the participating councils, achieved reductions in gum littering of between 60% and 80% in the first two months. Less gum litter was still being observed six months after clean-ups and the use of prevention materials.
