The gum that WON’T stick around on pavements...

MANY of us struggle to contain our annoyance at the sight of streets blighted by discarded chewing gum.

But for councils across the country that have to clean blobs of the stuff off pavements, it’s a serious problem that costs an estimated £ 60million a year to tackle.

Now a supermarket is hoping to ease the burden with a biodegradable chewing gum that does not contain plastic, one of the ingredients commonly used. It means that over time the sticky mess on pavements will just fade away on its own.

More than 100,000 tons of chewing gum are consumed every year and around 95 per cent of the country’s streets are stained with it.

The new product, called Simply Gum, is made from a sap called chicle, extracted from the sapodilla tree, native to Central America.

It comes as a survey of 2,000 adults found 80 per cent have no idea what ordinary chewing gum is made of, while 85 per cent were not aware it often contains forms of plastic such as polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate.

Sir Malcolm Walker, executive chairman of Iceland, which commissioned the study, said: ‘I detest the mess that discarded plastic chewing gum creates on our streets and the fortune that is wasted by councils trying to clear it up.

‘For decades, regular gum makers have hidden their synthetic ingredi- ents behind the catch-all term of “gum base”, which is consistently used as an ingredient on packs.

‘Simply Gum uses the original, natural gum base of chicle and is fully biodegradable.’

He added the chain would stock the gum, which costs £2 a pack, so that shoppers ‘can have a real choice about what they are consuming and the impact they make on the environment’.

The research found nine in ten are worried about the damage done to the environment by plastic. Three quarters said they have actively tried to cut down on the number of products they buy containing or packaged in plastic.

The Daily Mail has campaigned to end the scourge of plastic pollution with the Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign, and has also called for a deposit scheme to encourage plastic bottle recycling.

Food psychologist Dr Christy Fergusson, who is working with Iceland, said: ‘Over the past several years, as consumers we have become more conscious when it comes to the products we buy and the impact that our diet and lifestyle choices have on the environment.

‘As a result, we want to know what we are purchasing, so we can make more informed decisions.’

The chain’s research found around 75 per cent consider products that contain only natural ingredients to be healthier than those that don’t, while 40 per cent said they are buying fewer items with synthetic materials than they did five years ago.

Iceland has pledged to go ‘plasticfree’ on its own label products by the end of 2023.

‘A fortune is wasted clearing it up’