Cost of litter spirals out of control

19 July 2010

The cost of clearing up Britain’s litter epidemic has risen by almost £100 million (10 percent) in just one year. Figures highlighted today (Monday) by Keep Britain Tidy show the full shocking £858 million cost of our throwaway culture.

Samantha Harding, manager of the CPRE Stop the Drop Campaign, says: "We're told we’re living in the age of austerity but the cost of litter has exploded by almost £100 million and shows no signs of slowing down. We need a concerted and sustained public information campaign to educate people about the true costs of littering. We must make littering as unacceptable as vandalism."

Led by its president, Bill Bryson, CPRE has spearheaded a renewed drive to get Britain’s litter under control with its 'Stop the Drop' campaign. The charity has been instrumental in securing a cross government, industry and NGO initiative to find solutions to the problem, with outcomes expected by late Autumn.

Samantha Harding concluded: "As with healthcare, the cost of prevention is much less than the cost of a cure. We need to stop litter before it happens and you do this with a mixture of information, incentive and provision. We need a campaign to make people take notice; financial incentives like bottle deposit schemes and better bin provision to allow people to do the right thing. It’s going to take government and industry to make this work but without action, the costs can only go up."