Council calculates litter clearing costs to support Keep Britain Tidy campaign

Cheshire West and Chester Council has calculated that litter and fly-tipping costs a huge £3.1m a year to clear up – money that could be used on other services.

The figure will be used on new posters and social media messaging launched to coincide with Keep Britain Tidy’s Great September Clean campaign.

The campaign, which runs from 11 to 27 September encourages individuals and small, socially distanced, community groups to get involved by giving their neighbourhoods a thorough clean-up.  The usual Great British Spring Clean, which had seen 680,000 volunteers across the country sign up to take part, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Council’s ASIST officers (Area Streets Information and Solutions Team) have prepared a toolkit for individuals and small groups to arrange clean up events in their communities.

The toolkit, which is available throughout the year not just during the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, includes litter-picking grabbers, bags, gloves, cleansing wipes, shovels, spades and full instructions for the collection of filled bags, etc.  A jet washing machine is also available.  To boost recycling, groups are asked to sort rubbish into different bags depending on whether it is plastic or general waste.

If you would like to make use of the toolkit to make a difference in your area, please email the ASIST officers on yourstreets@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk. 

You can pledge your support of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign on their website.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: “£3.1 million is an incredible amount of money, based on our expenditure to clear both littering and fly-tipping for the financial year 2019/20.  Money that could be spent elsewhere if litter and fly-tipping didn’t exist. We all need to play our part by putting our rubbish in a bin or taking it home if one isn’t available. 

“I’m happy we are able to promote the use of our toolkit to help individuals and small groups make a difference and support Keep Britain Tidy’s Great September Clean campaign.  I’m looking forward to hearing about the results achieved across the borough.

“We have a large number of volunteers who regularly litter-pick across west Cheshire to help keep our borough looking beautiful all year – I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them most sincerely for all they do.”

Full link to pledge site:

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-british-spring-clean