Battling the lockdown litter louts

Charlie Bullough looks at littering during lockdown and at Keep Britain Tidy’s latest campaign which launches this week

Beauty spots and public places being blighted by litter louts has become an all too familiar sight during lockdown. Bournemouth Beach became a cause célèbre after day trippers dumped as-muchas 50 thousands of tonnes of waste daily on it and neighbouring seafronts.

But it just wasn’t the seaside that was blighted by mess, our cities and parks have copped for it too.

Major clean ups were held in Leeds and Liverpool city centres after football fans celebrating sporting triumphs left the streets and squares strewn with litter. Some fans were so ashamed that they even helped with the tidy up.

The popularity of parks during lockdown has also had a downside. Councils have reported having to collect unprecedented amounts of waste from them. They have had to spend, on average, an extra £33,000 on managing parks in the past three months, according to a Keep Britain Tidy survey.

Richard McIlwain, deputy chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The UK was the birthplace of the public park and their value was recognised by many people during lockdown, as a haven of green space for exercise and relaxation.

“But, as lockdown measures have eased over the past three months, we’ve seen a significant minority of people abuse these treasured spaces, with shocking scenes of antisocial behaviour, leading to littering, deposit of human waste and abuse of parks staff.”

And the bill for maintaining our parks doesn’t end there. The survey of more than 100 local authorities revealed almost half would need more staff to manage parks over the summer holidays. They will also have to spend, on average, an additional £47,000 to cope.

But Keep Britain Tidy and its Centre for Social Innovation are hoping to change people’s mindset with its Love Parks campaign. The poster initiative, which wants us to “be kind to our local parks” delivers its message through a series of quotes and slogans.

There are eight different images featuring three park rangers and five members of the community. The thinking is that people respond to messages from individuals better than they do from organisations.

Mr McIlwain added: “Clearly, effective and welltargeted enforcement will always have a role to play in curbing this behaviour, however, we also want to inspire people to look after our parks and the key workers who look after them. Hence, this campaign, which will be available to every local authority in the country and which is based on behavioural science, will act as an effective nudge to actively encourage people to treat our beautiful parks - and the amazing staff who work in them - with respect this summer.”

The campaign has been funded as part of the government’s coronavirus response and will be bolstered with additional campaign activity led by Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) over the summer. It will be promoted online and in locations near to beaches and national parks. This will help further highlight the impacts of littering, including nonmedical PPE litter, as well as unauthorised barbecues and campfires.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “As the coronavirus lockdown has eased, the amount of litter being left in parks, green spaces and beaches across the country is unacceptable. I wholeheartedly support Keep Britain Tidy’s new campaign to tackle this issue.

“There is simply no excuse to leave rubbish behind, and councils can issue fines of up to £150 to those caught doing it. If you are unable to dispose of litter, then please take it home so you don’t destroy what you have come to enjoy.”

Keep Britain Tidy has had a busy few months crusading against litter. In June it highlighted the findings of its Litter Composition report. The study, which was commissioned by Defra, revealed our ”drink and drop” culture. The 2019 analysis looked at not only the items which were dropped but also at the volume. It showed that almost three quarters of the litter analysed was the result of drinks consumption.

The impact of volume is illustrated by the fact that while small cigarette butts make up the vast majority of litter items at 66 per cent, they only account for 0.2 per cent of overall litter volume. Whereas the most common littered item, by volume, was the nonalcoholic small plastic bottle at 24.4 per cent. Types of cans, smoking litter not stubs and coffee cups also made the top five.

Mr McIlwain, Keep Britain Tidy’s deputy CEO, 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.”

So what can we do to stem the rising tide of litter? This autumn Keep Britain Tidy is urging people to take part in its Great British September Clean. It follows on from the Great British Spring Clean, which was cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns after 680,000 had pledged to volunteer. The September 11-27 initiative is now calling for volunteers.

It wants small groups of family and friends, depending on Government guidance, to form litter picking squads. Individuals can also take part and give as little as 15 minutes of their time.

But the aim is simple: to make sure our green and pleasant land remains that way.