Public call to stop car litter
04 February 2011
While nearly a quarter of the public admit to dropping litter from their vehicle, there is a growing number of people who are determined to make a stand against the rotting apple cores, fast food litter, cigarette stubs and drinks cartons that lie strewn along the side of our roads.
In 2009, Keep Britain Tidy ran a month-long car litter campaign during which more than 6,000 people logged reports about people littering from their cars. However, while the campaign may have ended, the passion of people who want to stamp out the problem has not, and 18 months on the number of incidents of car littering reported on our website is steadily growing, with more than 9,300 incidents to date – an average of over 150 every month.
Fiona Ashurst from Keep Britain Tidy said: “Throwing litter from a car is disgusting and makes our roadsides look like a dumping ground.
“It is very difficult for local authorities to punish the culprit as they have to be caught in the act of littering, which is very difficult to do. Consequently people believe they can get away with it as they won’t get caught.”
More needs to be done to help local authorities catch the culprits and Keep Britain Tidy believes that the owner of the vehicle should be fined, regardless of whether it was them or one of their passengers – unless they provide details of the culprit.
Research following our campaign in 2009 shows that the public believe that the best deterrent to stop motorists littering is points on their licence, community service and a large fine – in that order.
To report incidents of car littering click here. Your support will help us in our fight to stop people chucking rubbish from their cars, vans and lorries.