On this page you will find
Litter in Telford and
Wrekin
Details on how long it takes to break
down
Public confessions
Street Sweeping
Sweeping is usually carried out on a 10 week cycle, although many
town centres are swept daily to remove unsightly debris that
quickly builds up. As well as sweeping roads, we now also sweep all
strategic footpath routes, such as the Wrekin Link and Silkin Way,
four times each year.
Litter Picking
There are a range of litter
picking frequencies:
- General open spaces get a thorough litter pick every
fortnight.
- Town and district centres are litter picked daily.
- Wooded areas, due to their very nature, are litter picked
annually each winter.
Some litter facts and
figures
Litter can be as small as a cigarette butt or sweet wrapper or
as large as a bin liner of rubbish; or it can be lots of items
scattered around an area.
£413 million a year is spent annually by local authorities in
England on picking up litter.
We currently spend £2.3 million a year clearing litter from the
borough.
It is estimated that in the year 2004/5 the equivalent of over
70,000 bags of litter were removed from the retail and district
centre areas of Telford and Wrekin alone.
Types of litter
Cigarette ends followed by sweet wrappers are the most commonly
found items of litter. For more information, please view the
smoking related litter web
page.
In a recent survey cigarette litter was found in 77% of all
locations surveyed and litter such as sweet wrappers were found on
53% of locations. Litter such as cans and bottles were found in 31%
of all locations.
Litter
breakdown
Litter can take years to degrade. Plastic bottles can last
indefinitely so; a plastic bottle dropped in a field today could
still be there in the next millennium.
Aluminium litter such as drink cans last from 80 to 100 years,
as do nappies. Plastic bags can last between 15 and 20 years.
Cigarette butts, orange peel, banana skins and apple cores can last
up to two years.
Public confessions!
Research by ENCAMS (the people behind the Keep Britain Tidy
campaign) shows that the public admits the most likely situation in
which they would drop litter is when they are driving.
The public also feel it is more acceptable to drop litter if an
area is already run down or dirty.
The same people would think twice about littering if they were in
their own neighbourhood, if the area was tidy or if they were with
children. |