Drive-by littering
Someone throwing litter from a vehicle as they speed by is, for some people, the most irritating form of littering that they ever witness. There are various aspects that rankle – the contempt for one’s local environment shown by a driver cocooned in a vehicle; the rapid sequence of events in which a vehicle appears, the window is wound down, the offending article is chucked out, the window is wound up again and the vehicle and driver are gone; the sheer illogicality of discarding something which imposes minimum inconvenience in terms of keeping it in the vehicle and binning it at the destination; the fact that drivers often go to the trouble of knotting up whole plastic bags of rubbish – and then throwing them from their vehicle.
Well, vehicle litterers – we are now starting to fight back. Keep Britain Tidy this month launched a campaign aimed at highlighting this particular form of antisocial behaviour with the intention of mustering sufficient public support to bring about a change in the law.
It may surprise you to learn that it is well-nigh impossible to fine someone who litters from a vehicle. The law in this area does not allow a fine to be imposed simply on the driver of the vehicle as it may not have been the driver who committed the act of littering. Think of speeding offences – the driver is, of course, responsible for a speeding occurrence and the only argument in court is usually who was driving the car at the time. But think also of the law for wearing seat belts. In the case of someone in the car being spotted not wearing a seat belt, the police have the power to fine the driver – fair enough, as the driver should be in control not only of their vehicle but also of the passengers and so can ensure that they are all belted up.
So why can’t the driver be held responsible if someone litters from their vehicle while they are in the driving seat ? Search me.
In fact Keep Britain Tidy are campaigning for a hard-hitting approach to dealing with car litterers, including fining, community service and points on their licence. Their research shows that it is mainly such deterrents as these that will stop this behaviour. And when the Highways Agency reports that over 700,000 sacks of rubbish are removed from England’s roads and roadsides each year, you do feel that a stricter approach is required.
It is interesting that the most commonly-littered item from vehicles is cigarette ends. It is also amazing that many smokers still don’t see cigarette ends as constituting litter. I have heard of one or two successful campaigns on roads badly littered by cigarette butts where signs have been erected saying “This road is not an ashtray”. It seems that such signs have had some effect – I am a keen advocate of using a little humour now and then which does, I suggest, often get through to people more effectively than the constantly hectoring “Don’t litter !”. One of my favourite signs is on the outside of a pub in Devon and it says “When the road and the plant pots are full, please use the ashtray below”.
So there is now something that you can do when you see someone chuck litter from a car. Follow this link (vehicle littering petition) through to the Keep Britain Tidy website and sign yourself up on the petition to change the law. It may seem only a symbolic action, but if Keep Britain Tidy collect enough names, then they can at least go back to the government and show that it’s not just Keep Britain Tidy that is fed up with littered roads and verges. It’s the majority of us.
I should add that in other countries they are often able to go to greater lengths than this. The Don’t Mess with Texas campaign, for instance, allows you to report the number plate of a vehicle litterer who will then receive a letter enclosing a rubbish bag and explaining to the driver why littering from a vehicle is not a smart thing to do. We can’t yet do that in this country, but let’s hope that the time will come when we can.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Very good reporting of the facts. Our County Sheriff sends letters to the registered owners of littering vehicles.
We are encouraging those with road frontages to plant road salt tolerant and drought resistant flowers which grow to 24″ or less.
Keep up the great work:-)
Walt Thompson
Keep Putnam Beautiful (NY, USA)
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 am
Cigarette litter is a huge problem worldwide and a causes massive long term damage to the environment. It is a growing problem too often overlooked or underestimated.
It’s partly a problem of perception. People often seem to think that their tiny piece of disgarded smoking waste is too small to make a difference – or persuade themselves that everyone ‘else does it so why bother to dispose considerately’.
Indeed, many cigarette smokers simply don’t think their cigarette butt will make any difference to the environment or assume that someone at the Council or Municipality is paid to pick up litter so there is no need for them to dispose of their cigarette ends considerately.
It does not matter that cigarette ends are small – just like chewing gum – they ‘are’ litter as defined under UK law and local authorities across the UK are now levying on the spot Fixed Penalty Notices of up to £100 where litter wardens catch someone dropping cigarette ends or gum.
In the UK it’s possible for fines of up to £2,500 to be applied in a Magistrates Court for dropping litter however small and Councils are taking a much tougher line to help change people’s behaviour.
Research has shown that many smokers believe they are actually being responsible by dropping their cigarette end onto the pavement to grind it out under foot and make sure their cigarette end cannot start a fire.
The following facts gathered from Encams (Keep Britain Tidy), CPRE (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) and other research studies highlight the scale of the problem and the threats to the environment posed by inconsiderately discarded micro litter such as cigarette ends and chewed gum.
• The most frequently cited reason for gum and butts littering is no convenient point of disposal – no bins or not enough bins.
• Chewing gum is used by 28 million people in the UK.
• 200 million cigarette butts are thrown away each day in the UK. (Source:ENCAMS)
• In the UK alone more than a billion packs of chewing gum are sold each year.
• Each piece of gum dropped costs from 10p to 30p remove.
• It costs approximately £20,000 to clean up chewing gum in an average town centre. The clean up has to be carried out several times each year. (Source:ENCAMS)
• 122 tons of cigarette butts and cigarette related litter is dropped every day in the UK. (Source: ENCAMS)
• It takes 17 weeks to remove chewing gum from Oxford Street, but only 10 days for the street to be covered in gum again.
• Street cleaning in the UK costs upwards of £413m each year– this is paid for by council taxes.
• Chewed gum takes up to 5 years to biodegrade.
• As the anti-smoking lobby’s campaign gains momentum, employers are banning smoking from not only indoor areas but outdoor areas too – employees are forced out on to public
spaces where the facilities are limited to non-existent.
• A full smoking ban in pubs and clubs is likely to substantially increase the cigarette litter burden.
• In Ireland, 61% of people believe litter from smoking has risen since the Republic introduced a similar ban back in March 2004. ■ “Without proper facilities,smokers will turn our streets into a giant ashtray,”said Alan Woods,Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy. “Cigarette butts,boxes and matches are already our biggest litter problem,blighting 90% of our high streets – so we need to act now and ensure smokers have what they need to dispose of their rubbish correctly.”
• In the UK,cigarettes account for over 40% of street litter.(Source:ENCAMS)
• Up to 3.5 billion deposits of gum have at one time or another been spat or dropped on to our streets.
• 92 per cent ofcity paving stones have had gum stuck to them.
Local Authorities across the world work hard to stem the flow of this kind of litter to prevent it wreaking havoc on the environment.
The answer is a combination of provision (of better more convenient disposal facilities), education (communicating the damage caused by this kind of litter and making people aware of considerate disposal options) and enforcement (penalizing people who drop cigarette and other forms of litter).
The problem is increasingly attracting the attention of product designers and developers.
Smartstreets, we have developed some highly innovative, award winning new disposal solutions for cigarette and gum litter which have been proven to massively reduce smoking related litter where employed.
The multiple patent applied Smartstreets-Smartbin has won two international product design awards and for the first time, enables local authorities and street scene managers to install more litter bins in more places without adding clutter to the built environment by providing litter bins solutions that look good and retrofit ‘around’ exiting uprights such as light columns and sign posts as well as fitting onto walls and railings.
Complementing existing street furniture and providing a neat, safe and effective cigarette bin in regularly spaced positions has been shown to almost eradicate cigarette litter in high-footfall areas.
Manchester Council in the UK monitored their Smartstreets-Smartbins and proved that a twin, post-mounted Smartbin will gather up to 25,000 cigarette butts and pieces of gum every year. To see some galleries of over 40 Coucil customer installations around the world you can visit http://www.smartclients.co.uk or http://www.smartstreets.eu
Manchester Council’s independent trials showed that a network of 300 Smartstreets-Smartbins in high footfall areas (such as the networks in the City of London and the London Boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey and Enfield) will collect up to 7.5 million cigarette butts and pieces of gum per year – that’s almost 30 metric tonnes of micro litter kept off the streets by these post mounted cigarette litter bins.
Smartstreets are product designers who manufacture a wide range of unique cigarette and gum litter solutions – apart from Smartstreets-Smartbins (post and wall, railing mounted cigarette bins and gum bins) their product range includes Smartstreets-Minibins (personal, pocket ashtrays), Smartstreets-Gumsticks (gum board style solutions) and now, quick fit bicycle parking stations for Councils and private businesses which retro-fit to existing sign posts to provide dedicated bicycle parking using existing street furniture to reduce clutter.
Cigarette litter is a menace and a massive threat to the environment the world over, If you would like further information about Smartstreets range of cigarette and gum litter solutions, please visit http://www.smartstreets.co.uk or call 44 (0)20 8742 3223.
Further web galleries online at http://www.smartstreets.eu and http://www.smartclients.co.uk
AWARDS: Smartstreets Ltd won an Honourable Mention in the Red Dot product Design Awards for the Smartstreets-Smartbin in 2008 (5,885 entries from 39 nations) and was awarded a Bronze Spark Award for product design in the USA in November 2009.