An 11-tonne mountain of rubbish has been created by Sutton Council to highlight it costs £4m a year to clean up litter.
The council hoped the day’s worth of litter would show the public how much of taxpayers’ money is spent on cleaning up the streets. The £4m a year cost is the equivalent of repairing 10,000 potholes, building half a primary school or providing 210 residential care places for the elderly.
As part of the campaign, the council has also introduced two new enforcement officers to issue fixed penalty notices of £90 to those who drop litter, and installed 300 new litter bins across the borough.
Councillor Jill Whitehead, chair of Sutton Council’s Environment and Neighbourhood Committee, said: ‘We collect 11 tonnes of litter every day from our streets which contribute to the cost to the council tax payer of £4m a year for street cleaning. The mountain of litter we have created in our High Street today really brings home just how much litter that is, and how disgusting it is that it ends up on our streets and not in bins.
‘By educating people about the consequences of dropping litter, including thinking about what £4m could be better spent on, they can help the council to make savings and make Sutton look even better in the process.’
