LAWR

STREET SCENE Solving England's litter problem: Who needs to do more? Fast food wrappers, cigarette butts and chewing gum litter. The issue is a £1bn problem for councils, who have the prime responsibility of clearing the nation's streets and town centres of litter, but other stakeholders have a part to play in combating the issue. Who should be doing more? Liz Gyekye finds out. nglish councils are collecting 30,000 tonnes of litter from the streets every year and have a duty to do so under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Yet, big brands also have a part in tackling litter under the Consumer Information Obligation (CIO), which forms part of the Producer Responsibility Regulations. Under the Regulations, producers whose princi- ple activity is selling, have to provide consumers with information on where they can return or safely deposit pack- aging for recycling and have a duty to encourage reuse of packaging waste. No company has yet been fined for not carrying out its CIO responsibilities and E4 Environment director Mandy Stoker says that businesses should be doing more to help prevent rubbish appearing on the streets. She explains: "There is a tendency to keep beating up local authorities but this shouldn't be done. Under CIO the onus is put on to the person selling the product to the end user from big retailers to the local corner shop. The law is there so people can step up to the plate." However, in the end, the onus still falls on councils to deal with the problem. North West Leciestershire District Council has taken an engagement approach and joined up with haulage company Pall-Ex, founded by ex-Dragons Den star Hilary Devey, to develop an initiative targeting lorry drivers or passengers who throw litter from their vehicles. Major road links run through the district including the M1 and M42. Engaging with businesses that directly relate to road users is an effective way of tackling roadside litter in an inexpensive and positive way, North West Leciestershire District Council street environment manager Ruth Mulvaney says. However, she also claims that big brands need to do more to prevent litter and the burden should not fall solely on councils to tackle the problem when they have stretched budgets. She says: "When big brands are making millions of pounds in marketing something for people to buy then they have a responsibility to deliver a message on their product to make sure that person disposes of that packaging responsibly." That said, some brands are not leaving all the responsibility to councils to combat litter. Fast-food giants McDonald's, KFC, Domino's Pizza recently teamed up with 14 local authorities across Essex to raise awareness of litter and the risk of fines for those that offend. This is the first time a county-wide campaign of this type has been run. The drive against litter will see the fast food chains promoting anti-litter messages backed by local activities and enforcement by councils. The Clean Essex campaign has gained national support with Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) supporting the joint approach to litter awareness. The environmental charity claims that everybody should be solving the problem of litter. KBT chief executive Phil Barton says: "No single organisation, charity or business can solve the problem of litter in isolation E July 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 17 ►

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