Chewing gum busters task force set up in Derry & Strabane

The Council has received a special grant towards a campaign to clean up chewing gum and reduce gum littering on the Council area’s streets and pavements.

Gum Busters will receive project funding of £24,500 from the Chewing Gum Task Force, administered by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, and will help meet costs for gum busting equipment and staffing.

Established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is open to councils who wish to clean up gum in their areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped.

The Task Force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, who have committed an investment of up to £10 million spread over five years.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise - has shown that in areas that benefitted from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.

The Foyle Street area of the city will be a pilot area for the equipment to be used, however it is hoped the equipment will be available to businesses and community groups to avail of in the future.

Chair of Council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee, Councillor Keith Kerrigan, welcomed the funding and urged the public to consider the impact of their actions when they are disposing of chewing gum.

“I would like to thank the Chewing Gum Task Force for this funding which will help our street cleansing teams and local businesses to deal with the sticky problem of chewing gum disposed on our City and District’s streets.

“By combining targeted street cleaning and messaging to encourage people to bin their gum, I hope this will lead to less gum on our streets and more gum being disposed of correctly.

“Once the gum has been cleaned up, it is vital to remind the public that when it comes to litter, whether it’s gum or anything else, there is only one place it should be and that’s in the bin.”

Estimates suggest the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.

Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, added: “Chewing gum litter is highly visible on our high streets and is both difficult and expensive to clean up, so the support for councils provided by the Chewing Gum Task Force and the gum manufacturers is very welcome.

For more on Derry City and Strabane District Council's Waste and Recycling Services, including information on what items go in each bin, recycling centres and bin collections visit derrystrabane.com/recycling.