Why do we need a car litter campaign?
Littering from vehicles is a major problem throughout England and one that is unfortunately on the increase.
This filthy habit spoils our local areas and makes them appear undervalued and uncared for. Heavily littered areas can often attract more serious crime and very quickly can become run-down
According to the Highways Agency over 700,000 bags of rubbish are removed from England's roads each year, this leads to a cost of £858 million of tax payers money being spent each year cleaning up litter on our streets.
Keep Britain Tidy research shows that the most littered item from cars are cigarette ends. Cigarette ends are not only dirty and unsightly but also pose a real threat of fire - particularly during the hot summer months
In 2008 Keep Britain Tidy undertook extensive research into car littering, specifically looking at why people litter from their vehicle and what would stop them doing it in the future. The report found that there were three main deterrents which would stop them behaving in this way. These were:
- Points on their licence
- Fining
- Community Service
It was apparent from these findings that a hard hitting approach was needed if we were to successfully change the behaviour of those people that littered from their car.
Find out more about Keep Britain Tidy's vehicle litter research
What are we doing?
In response to these findings we have launched a high profile campaign which is calling on the public to help us tackle car litter by signing our petition when they witness someone littering from their vehicle. We are trying to get as many reports of this anti-social activity as possible, to highlight the extent of the problem and ultimately rid our roads of rubbish.