A new scheme designed to discourage people from leaving rubbish on park benches or walls is to be launched after a successful pilot.
A recent survey carried out by YouGov for the charity Keep Britain Tidy revealed that more than a quarter of people (27%) admitted to ‘careful’ littering.
This was defined as leaving packaging behind when eating or drinking ‘on the go’.
Keep Britain Tidy has developed a series of posters and floor vinyls designed to discourage people from littering by reminding them that even if you ‘carefully’ place rubbish you are still littering.
These interventions were trialled in town centres, bus stops and parks across the country and saw the total amount of litter reduced by a fifth (20%). In some areas, the reduction was up to 57%.
‘We all need to care for the environment on our doorstep to reduce litter and, as a result, help tackle plastic pollution, which is doing so much damage to our marine environment,’ Allison Ogden-Newton, CEO of environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.
‘This intervention shows it is possible to make a huge difference to the amount of litter left behind by people.
‘By highlighting that placing a coffee cup on a shop window sill is just as bad as mindlessly throwing litter on the ground is clearly making people think twice and to do it less.
‘With more than one in four people admitting to “careful” littering, this intervention is a simple and effective way to get the message across to them in the place and at the moment when they’re likely to do it.’
