Litter report calls for new recycling initiatives

According to a report called Litterbugs from the think tank, The Policy Exchange, a national body is needed in order to co-ordinate solutions to the UK’s litter problem which costs the taxpayer £500 million a year.

Bill Bryson, the author and president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, has revealed that the current situation is both unsustainable and untenable and money needs to be spent educating the inconsiderate minority and changing both attitudes and behaviours.

The report has recommended an education plan is needed so that people are making informed decisions and are aware of the consequences of dropping litter, as well as making sure that enforcement is equal across Britain.

A combination of fines, as well as incentives, should be used in order to create a recycling culture that is more aware of the change that is needed for society to become sustainable.

The report highlighted a successful scheme that has been introduced in New York State, where a scheme that gives a small deposit back on cans and bottles and this in turn has helped to reduce roadside litter by 70 percent.

The report also contains research on people’s perceptions of litter and it is clear from some of the blasé attitudes and responses that littering is, in some circles, socially acceptable and it is this attitude that the report has revealed the government and local councils needs to change, in order to save the taxpayer from throwing good money down the drain in the current climate.

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