Neat streets campaign aims to make litter personal

A NEW Westminster campaign hopes to tackle the problem of littering by making the issue personal.

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The Neat Streets campaign, launched by the charity HubBub and supported by Westminster City Council, Veolia, Lucozade Ribena Suntory and others, aims to stop litter bugs in their tracks by using the latest behaviour change innovations.

 

A new poll by HubBub has found that 86% of people think littering is a disgusting habit yet only 15% of us would actually confront someone and tell them that.

 

A central component of the campaign are posters of local residents and workers holding handwritten signs saying ‘my street is your street,’. This is displayed along with information about that local’s name, and relationship to the street – such as Manwell, Veolia’s main street cleaner for Villier’s Street, or Amanda, the manager of Gordon’s Wine Bar. It then asks readers to take care of ‘Manwell’ or ‘Amanda’s’ street, personalising the area and the problem of litter.

 

Other innovations which hope to raise people’s awareness of litter and change their behaviour include humorous announcements and messages on whiteboards at Charing Cross stations, singing on the streets, changing the street architecture, and a ‘flash mob’ event.

 

A HubBub poll found that food and packaging litter came top as the most hated litter type, followed by litter thrown out of a car window; used chewing gum; and litter in green spaces.

 

Previous research by Keep Britain Tidy found that 34% of people in England would be less likely to buy from a company whose packaging they saw littered, while 39% would be more likely to buy a product from a business that was seen to be taking responsibility on litter. 82% thought businesses should do more to prevent litter.