facts



	The local picture The amount of litter and waste on the streets of Cheltenham has increased sharply over recent years. Litter statistics • The council clears around 800 tonnes of litter and waste from the streets each year • The cost of cleaning up street litter, flyposting, graffiti etc. is now over £700,000 a year in Cheltenham. Fly tipping Fly tipping is on the increase. In Cheltenham there are over 600 incidents of fly tipping each year – everything from sofas, mattresses, white goods, car batteries, tyres, car parts, Christmas trees, builders’ rubble and even dead animals are dumped on verges, ditches and roadsides. The national picture Litter has become a national problem in recent years. Brits litter most... A recent poll suggested that the British public believe that our towns and cities are dirtier than those in the rest of western Europe. Thirty-nine per cent of respondents said that litter was one of the factors that makes them feel uncomfortable in Britain’s streets. Litter fines up... In February 2002 on-the-spot fines for dropping litter were doubled from £25 to £50. Plans are in the pipeline for legislative changes which will allow local authorities to keep the cash but no date has been announced yet when this will happen. Until then, there is no incentive for councils to employ litter wardens. We are lobbying government ministers to press for urgent change. Enforcement... Enforcement of fines is not currently a strong point nationally with only around 400 people a year fined for dropping litter. Costly... Litter is expensive – nationally it costs around £370 million a year to remove litter from our streets, waterways and open spaces and a further £5 million to remove shopping trolleys dumped in rivers and ponds.” Litter facts • The most commonly-found litter is cigarette ends, followed by sweet and food wrappers. • An estimated 122 tons of cigarette butts and cigarette-related litter is dropped every day across the UK. • More than 100,000 trolleys go astray from supermarkets each year. Many end up obstructing paths, spoiling beauty spots or polluting rivers and ponds. The yearly cost is some £5m nationally. • Any type of litter takes a long time to disappear naturally, so whatever the material the right thing to do is not to drop it in the first place. Degradability depends on climate and circumstances, but under unfavourable conditions estimated time spans can be as long as:- – Plastic bottles - indefinitely – Aluminium cans 80–100 years – Tin cans 50 years – Glass indefinitely – Plastic bags 10–20 years – Cigarette butts up to 2 years – Orange peel/banana skins up to 2 years Litter and the law • "Littering" is a criminal offence. You can be fined up to £2,500, though not jailed. The average fine is around £90, plus court costs. Cases are tried in magistrates' courts. • The offence is committed under Section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. • There is no precise definition of litter. It can mean anything from a crisp packet to a sack of rubbish or discarded food. • Local authorities can appoint officers to issue a £50 Fixed Penalty Fine for littering. If it is not paid within 14 days the offender can be taken to court. • Drivers are the worst litterers. Research shows that people feel non-accountable in a car and can’t be identified. People who throw litter from vehicles can be prosecuted. Vehicle registration details are taken and the authorities can trace the owner through the DVLA. • Businesses that dump rubbish on pavements (other than for official collection) can be fined for littering. So can householders.