A new Keep Britain Tidy survey shows that not dropping litter is a great way to show your love
14 February 2012
Are you proud of where you live? Latest research from Keep Britain Tidy has found that three quarters of people in England are proud of the town or city they call home – and actively do something to show some love to their local area.
But what about the rest of us? A lack of pride in where we live centres around feelings that the area is run down (31%) or that it is dirty, suffering from litter, graffiti and dog fouling (26%). In fact in Yorkshire and The Humber, 42% of residents don’t have pride in their area because it appears to be run down.
Living in a place that is clean and tidy (16%) is also one of the main reasons that we feel proud of our home. Litter it would appear plays a fundamental part in our feelings of pride, or lack of it. And it is one thing which we can all actively take responsibility for and do something about.
Love Where You Live, a campaign led by Keep Britain Tidy, is all about getting people to care about, and take responsibility for, the places in which they live, work and play. By simply working together to show some love to our local area, we can easily turn around the appearance of our communities and make them places we can be proud of.
Of the 77% of people who are proud of their local town, when questioned about what they do to show that they love where they live, the main response by over a third of people was not dropping litter - rising to 44% in the North East.
Other things people did to show they love where they live included taking care of appearance of their immediate area around their home, helping out their neighbours, volunteering at local events, and picking up after their dog.
Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy said: “Issues which are central to Love Where You Live, are at the heart of what people are already doing to show that they love where they live. By working together, we can make a big difference and tackle the problem of litter that blights our beautiful country.
“It currently costs local authorities £885 million to clean up our streets, yet it costs us as individuals nothing to put our litter in a bin. We all have a role to play and it is not someone else’s responsibility to clean up, it is everyone’s responsibility.”
To encourage people to show some love to where they live, Keep Britain Tidy’s talking bins, which appeared in London as part of the Love Where You Live campaign last year, have now bid farewell to the capital and have set up home in a number of towns and cities up and down the country.
In keeping with the love theme, the bins will be encouraging people to show some love to where they live by serenading people who do the right thing and throw their litter in the bin with messages of love.