Battttling the lockdown

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

Beauty spots and public places being blighted bylitter louts has become anall too familiar sight during lockdown. BournemouthBeachbecameacausecélèbre afterday trippers dumpedas-muchas 50thousandsoftonnesof waste daily onit andneighbouring seafronts.

Butit just wasn’t the seaside that wasblighted bymess, ourcities andparkshave coppedfor it too.

Majorclean upswereheld in LeedsandLiverpool city centres afterfootball fans celebrating sporting triumphs left the streets andsquares strewn with litter. Somefans weresoashamedthatthey even helped with the tidy up.

Thepopularity of parks during lockdownhasalso had a downside. Councils have reported having to collect unprecedented amountsof waste fromthem. Theyhave hadtospend, onaverage, anextra £33,000 onmanaging parks in the past three months, according to a Keep Britain Tidy survey.

Richard McIlwain, deputy chief executive of KeepBritain Tidy, said: “TheUKwasthe birthplace of the public park andtheir value wasrecognised bymanypeopleduring lockdown, as a havenof green space for exercise andrelaxation.

“But, as lockdownmeasures 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 andabuseofparks staff.”

Andthebill for maintaining our parks doesn’t endthere. Thesurvey of morethan

100 local authorities revealedalmost half would needmorestaff to manageparks over the summer holidays. Theywill also have to spend, onaverage, an additional £47,000 to cope.

But KeepBritain Tidy and its Centre for Social Innovation are hoping to change people’s mindset with its Love Parks campaign. Theposter initiative, whichwantsusto “bekindtoourlocal parks” delivers its messagethrougha series of quotes andslogans.

Thereare eight different images featuring three park rangers andfivemembersof the community. Thethinking is that people respond to messages fromindividuals better than they dofromorganisations.

MrMcIlwainadded: “Clearly, effective andwelltargeted enforcement will always have a role to play in curbing this behaviour, however, wealso wanttoinspire people to look afterourparks andthekeyworkers wholookafter them. Hence, this campaign, whichwill be available to every local authority in the country andwhichis based onbehavioural science, will act as aneffective nudge to actively encourage people to treat ourbeautiful parks - andtheamazingstaff whoworkinthem- with respect this summer.”

Thecampaignhasbeen funded as part of the government’s coronavirus response andwill bebolstered with additional campaignactivity led byDefra (Departmentfor Environment, Food& Rural Affairs) over the summer. It will bepromotedonlineandin locations near to beaches and national parks. This will help further highlight the impacts of littering, including nonmedical PPElitter, as well as unauthorised barbecues and campfires.

EnvironmentMinister Rebecca Powsaid: “Asthecoronavirus lockdownhaseased, the amountoflitter being left in parks, green spaces and beaches across the country is unacceptable. I wholeheartedly support KeepBritain Tidy’s newcampaigntotackle this issue.

“Thereis simply noexcuse to leave rubbish behind, and councils canissue finesofup to £150 to those caught doing it. If youare unable to dispose of litter, then please take it homesoyoudon’tdestroy whatyouhavecometoenjoy.”

KeepBritain Tidy has had abusyfewmonthscrusading against litter. In Juneit highlighted the findings of its Litter Composition report. Thestudy, whichwascommissioned byDefra, revealed our”drink anddrop” culture. The2019analysis looked at not only the items whichwere droppedbutalso at the volume. It showedthatalmost three quarters of the litter analysed wastheresult of drinks consumption.

Theimpactofvolumeisillustrated bythefact that while small cigarette buttsmake upthevast majority of litter items at 66percent, they only account for 0.2 per cent of overall litter volume. Whereas the mostcommonlittered item, byvolume, wasthenonalcoholic small plastic bottle at 24.4 per cent. Typesof cans, smokinglitter not stubs and coffeecupsalso madethetop five.

MrMcIlwain, KeepBritain Tidy’s deputy CEO, said: “It’s clear that our‘food onthego’ culture of convenience comes with real consequences, with food anddrinkpackaging polluting our environment, whichinturncosts millions to clean-upandharmsnative wildlife anddomesticpets.”

Sowhatcanwedotostem the rising tide of litter? This autumnKeepBritainTidyis urging people to take part in its Great British September Clean. It follows onfromthe Great British Spring Clean, whichwascancelled because of COVID-19 concerns after 680,000 hadpledgedto volunteer. TheSeptember11-27 initiative is nowcalling for volunteers.

It wantssmall groups of family andfriends, depending onGovernmentguidance, to formlitter picking squads. Individuals canalso take part andgive as little as 15 minutes of their time.

But the aimis simple: to makesureourgreenand pleasant land remains that way.

See www.keepbritaintidy.org for more.