Download the Neat Streets Litter Toolkit
Neat Streets Litter Toolkit is free to download for volunteers and councils, from the wonderful folks at Hubbub. Litter is undoubtedly one of the biggest problems in England, and this inspirational and positive toolkit is packed with case studies of research that works, to make your town litter-free!
Litter not only makes communities ugly, but it harms children, pets and wildlife and pollutes rivers and seas. Obviously choosing reusable over disposable (and deposit return schemes would help). But meanwhile, these guys have done the research to find out how to get people throwing away less litter, and how to pick it up effectively, and not return.
The Neat Street Toolkit includes a library of case studies, along with info on why people drop litter, how to stop them, and the best inventions to keep communities litter-free.
It’s great that volunteers spend hours picking up litter and unclogging rivers full of trash etc. But disheartening if it all comes back again.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a country like Japan (where people literally never drop litter, it’s just not the culture). Here in England you can often find binned cans and rubbish, right next to bins, even if they’re not full. Why is this?
Behaviour research by Hubbub has shown that often people drop litter, because they say there are not enough bins, others say they are full, and it’s known that if litter is already on the street, it encourages people to drop more.
The answer is not to tell people off (this won’t work). The answer is to educate people on what happens when litter is dropped (harming wildlife etc). And make bins more fun, to encourage them to use them.
It was found that ‘finger-wagging negative messaging’ actually increases litter-dropping by 10%
If all communities downloaded this toolkit, we could have a litter-free England pretty soon. Because once councils and volunteers had cleaned up the litter, it would be unlikely to come back.
Studies show that bright and colourful bins with positive messaging work. Many people literally are unaware of how dropped tin cans, plastic bottles and cigarette butts harm the planet. And how carrying a personal ashtray could prevent the most littered item on earth (and also prevent fires and wildfires).
The Ballot Bin began as an experiment, and has proved very successful. People are asked questions (like which footballer do you prefer?) and deposit their rubbish (or cigarette butts) in their choice. Sounds silly, but it works as it makes dropping litter in bins fun, and communities clean up naturally.
People only spend around 2 seconds at a bin, so keep messages short and punchy. Studies show that circular apertures (rather than wide open bins) lead to less littering (this also helps to stop birds and foxes etc raiding bins, which keeps them safe too.
Recycling bins should always be next to general waste bins (most people will not walk around looking for the other one, they are too lazy or busy).
