A new report produced by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and commissioned by Defra, has revealed that the bulk of the litter that is being thrown onto UK streets, parks and beaches is the result of drinking on the go.
A new report produced by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and commissioned by Defra, has revealed that the bulk of the litter that is being thrown onto UK streets, parks and beaches is the result of drinking on the go.
The survey, carried out at a representative sample of sites across the country in 2019, looked not only at the number of items dropped but at the volume of that litter and it revealed that almost three quarters of the litter – a massive 75% - was the result of drinks consumption.
The most littered item, by volume, was the small plastic bottle (up to 750ml) for non-alcoholic drinks, which accounted for 24.4% of the total, joined by cans, larger bottles, glass bottles, coffee cups, takeaway soft drinks cups and cartons. The resulting mountain of waste, much of which could and should be recycled is, instead, polluting the environment and costing millions of pounds to clean up.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Keep Britain Tidy Deputy CEO Richard McIlwain said:
“It’s clear that our ‘food on the go’ culture of convenience comes with real consequences, with food and drink packaging polluting our environment, which in turn costs millions to clean-up and harms native wildlife and domestic pets.
“As we consider what a post-Covid green recovery should look like, we should allow ourselves to imagine a world without litter and plastic pollution. It is clear that we urgently need new measures to tackle all types of littering but particularly to address the issue of drinks containers, which make up nearly three quarters of the volume of litter in this country.
“This is why we need a well-designed and comprehensive deposit return scheme as soon as possible, for all sizes of plastic, glass and aluminium drinks containers.
“In more than 40 countries and regions around the world, such schemes can drive up collection rates for drinks containers to over 90%, creating clean material for recycling and reducing littering.”
The Government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce a deposit return scheme for drinks bottles and cans in 2023 - Richard McIlwain is calling on the Government to ensure the timescale does not slip.
In addition, Keep Britain Tidy are also calling for the introduction of a charge on single-use plastic and plastic-lined cups, including those use for take-away coffees and cold drinks.
The charge on single-use plastic carrier bags reduced consumption by up to 90% and evidence suggests that a charge on single-use cups could in turn nudge consumers away from single-use and towards a refill culture for drinks-on-the-go.
The research, carried out before the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, showed that despite the fall in the number of smokers over the past decade, cigarette butts are littered more than anything else, accounting for 66% of all litter items dropped.
The NGO chief added:
“The Government’s own Environment Bill introduces the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR), initially for packaging but with scope to encompass other products. EPR aims to make companies responsible for 100% of the net costs of dealing with the products when they become waste, which includes the cost of clearing up those products if littered.
“Given the prevalence of cigarette litter, we believe government should ensure that EPR is applied to the tobacco industry, not just for cigarette packaging but for cigarette butts, which account for two-thirds of all littered items.
“To clean up this country, and to change the behaviour of those who, as we have seen so clearly in the past few weeks, think it is acceptable to pollute our beautiful parks and beaches with their rubbish, we need everyone to play their part and pay their fair share. Only then will we have an environment of which we can be proud.”
Between May 2019 and July 2019, Keep Britain Tidy conducted a nationally representative litter survey of 3,360 sites (50-metre transects) across England. Survey areas were selected to achieve a representative sample by population across the nine government regions of England and by Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranking.
Within each area, 22% of the sites were purposively selected because they had one or more litter and/or recycling bins present, while the remaining 78% of sites were randomly selected.
Click here to download the report in full
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