00:01Liverpool City Council is putting plans in place to remove chewing gum from the city's streets after receiving a £27,000 grant to tackle the issue.
00:11The council's one of 52 across the country that have successfully applied to the chewing gum task force now in its fourth year for funds to clean gum off pavement and prevent it from being littered again.
00:23I think there's a problem everywhere we litter, not just Liverpool.
00:27Some places, definitely, on the outskirts, you know, around some of the areas, you see there's a bit of a problem. So, yeah, I would think so.
00:36I'm a cleaner, a cleaner shopping centre, so we get abuse left, right and centre from the customers. So, yeah.
00:44Over the past three years, the council has been awarded approximately £80,000 to help tackle chewing gum litter.
00:51So far, the funding's been spent on specialists, machinery and staff to remove chewing gum from the streets with a high focus in residential areas.
01:00The additional grant will be used to tackle gum on a larger scale in high-profile areas of the city, as well as engaging with residents and visitors about the issue.
01:08I think mainly it's parents, you know, to bring the children up properly in the first place. I don't think you can change it after that.
01:18It makes the funds bigger, stronger, make them accountable for it. Yeah, I agree with that.
01:26I think it's just more so round, like I live, what, two miles outside the city centre, so out round places like that, I feel like people don't really care, you see, because especially where there's communal bins and things like that, people are just, like, anything and everything all over the street.
01:40It's not just like a cigarette butt or something, it's sofas and everything.
01:44Established by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy,
01:51the Chewing Gum Task Force grant scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place.
02:04The task force is funded by major gum manufacturers, including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Mell, with an investment of up to £10 million spread over five years.
02:14That's great if it's from the chewing gum companies. You know, it's their problem, really, isn't it?
02:21Well, it's our problem, but you know what I mean.
02:24You need people, people that are unemployed, to give them something to do, go round doing things like that, you know, just to get them to the streets.
02:33An incentive for them.
02:34And then, and if they're doing it, make those be fine for it.
02:40Estimates suggest the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million.
02:46And according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77% of England's streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.
02:56That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
02:59That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:00That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:01That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:02That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:03That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:04That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:06That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:08That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:09That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:10That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:11That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:12That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:13That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
03:14That doesn't really surprise me, no. Not at all.
