Tidy Roadsides (reducing roadside litter)
Hubbub (who designed the Neat Streets Litter Toolkit) also has a campaign to reduce roadside litter, with their Tidy Roadside campaign.
Using research in Cardiff and Glasgow, Hubbub have come up with reasons why there is so much roadside litter, and how to prevent it. And roadside litter is obviously more difficult and expensive to clean up, as it has to be done by councils (it’s too dangerous for volunteers to clean on motorways).
Their research found that:
- Roadside litter happens mostly when people slow down (say at traffic lights, junctions or slip roads).
- Often roadside litter is accidental (say blowing out the window, which is why a car trash bag is such a good idea).
- Some roadside litter is unbelievably due to ‘young men wanting to keep their cars clean’. If they have fast food or cans, they simply throw them out the window, to avoid spoiling their car seats etc.
- The main types of roadside litter are cigarette butts, plastic (from food and drink packaging), and paper litter (napkins, receipts and packaging).
What Works to Reduce Roadside Litter?
Based on case studies, what worked was:
- Installing bright fun signs ‘keep it till you bin it’.
- Providing bright ‘car-ready bins’ at petrol stations and roadside stops.
It was found that the bins were not enough, only litter reduced when coupled with signs explaining why litter harms, and positive messaging to get involved in litter reduction. When this was done, litter reduced significantly, especially when coupled with radio ads.
Other Ideas to Reduce Roadside Litter
If you smoke, get a personal ashtray to immediately extinguish cigarettes until you find a bin (rather than throwing them out the car window, where they fall down storm drains and go into the sea).
Carry a car trash bag in your car, to safely deposit empty bags of crisps and other litter, until you get home. Not only is this good to prevent litter, but helps birds and wildlife (they put themselves at risk, by trying to eat the litter. If that creatures dies, another creature may die going onto the road to eat it.
One farmer had a great idea. He wants fast food restaurants to put vehicle registration numbers on receipts. So if people throw fast food packaging out their car window, they receive a fine in the post, just like for speeding.
CleanupUK has a litter-picking code for highways. It wants councils to pick up litter before mowing grass verges, as otherwise all the litter and glass just gets smashed and goes into the air. National Highways are responsible for clearing over 4000 miles of motorways and trunk roads in England, you can report litter at the website.
