A new report has shown that a wide-ranging survey of streets and parks around England has found that just one in 10 was litter-free.
Between 2013 and 2024 researchers at Keep Britain Tidy walked 1,140 miles across a multitude of landscapes including rural villages, housing estates, parks and city centres to assess the amount of litter gathered on English streets.
They found that only nine out of every 100 places surveyed were completely litter-free, while streets in the most deprived areas were three times as likely to be littered as those in the least deprived areas, according to their report, A Rubbish Reality.
The most common culprits to miss the bins were cigarette butts and packaging, sweets, chocolate, chewing gum wrappers, and drink bottles and cans.
The report, which conducted surveys alongside the on-the-ground research, found that littered streets were likely to have a detrimental impact on residents’ mental health and safety as well as the economic development of the area.
“Litter is considered to be not significant in terms of measurement of deprivation. But what we found is that it does have a profound effect. It makes people feel unsafe. It’s something that people notice. It makes people feel embarrassed about where they live and where they work,” said Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive at Keep Britain Tidy.
When shown an image of a littered street, two-thirds of respondents to the survey conducted by the charity said that they wouldn’t feel safe walking there at night, while one in 7 said that living in such an area would have an adverse effect on their mental health.
Eighty-seven per cent of respondents said they would be reluctant to buy or rent in such a littered area with evermore than three-quarters believing the levels of litter would also deter business investment.
“I think that’s quite a significant indicator that it needs to be addressed if we want people to feel proud of where they live and to take care of it, but also if we want to attract investment into those areas and create opportunities for people,” said Ogden-Newton.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
