South Hams and West Devon councils have received a £23,590 grant to remove chewing gum from pavements and reduce gum littering across the area.
The funding comes from the Chewing Gum Task Force, which is administered by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and supported by major gum manufacturers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle.
Now in its fourth year, the initiative is backed by a £10 million industry investment over five years and aims to help local authorities clean streets and promote long-term behaviour change to stop gum from being dropped in the first place.
Cllr Jacqi Hodgson, South Hams Executive Member for Waste, said: “The funding we received last year allowed us to look at the problem of chewing gum on our streets and street clean in several areas.
“The continued support means we can continue with this work and tackle problem areas.
“As a local council we can only do so much about the problems of chewing gum on the street, but we hope the public will be more thoughtful in how they dispose of their gum to help the streets stay cleaner.”
Cllr Christopher West, West Devon Lead Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity, added: “We’re grateful to the Chewing Gum Task Force for this continued support. It’s a positive way for the industry to help solve the littering issue that it creates.
“Many towns and cities are affected by people dropping chewing gum and we hope that the street cleaning this grant covers will act as a reminder to people that our streets look much nicer without litter like chewing gum.”
South Hams and West Devon are among 52 councils across the country to benefit from this year’s grant scheme.
Monitoring carried out by Behaviour Change, a not-for-profit social enterprise, shows the scheme has led to gum litter reductions of up to 80 per cent within the first two months in areas that received funding in previous years.
In many cases, the improvements continued six months after targeted cleaning and the installation of signage encouraging responsible disposal.
Estimates suggest chewing gum removal costs UK councils around £7 million each year. Keep Britain Tidy reports that 77 per cent of England’s streets and 99 per cent of retail sites are stained with gum.
In its third year alone, the scheme awarded grants worth £1.585 million to 54 councils, helping to clean around 500,000 square metres of public space.
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, said: “Chewing gum continues to be an unsightly form of litter in our public spaces – though thankfully the scheme is leading to significant reductions.
“People need to remember that disposing irresponsibly of their gum causes harm to our environment as it takes years to decompose naturally – and, ultimately, costs the public purse to clean it up."
