Maidstone's Gum-Busters Return After Campaign Cuts Chewing Gum Litter by 86%

Maidstone's chewing gum clean-up campaign is getting a second year of funding, after evidence that its first round cut discarded gum litter by as much as 86% in the areas it targeted.

Maidstone Borough Council has secured over £19,000 from the national Chewing Gum Task Force, the funding scheme set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and paid for by gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle. It's administered by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, and the council is one of 50 local authorities receiving money this round.

The renewed funding follows a strong result from last year's campaign, when Maidstone was one of only two boroughs chosen to take part in an independent evaluation of targeted street cleansing and anti-litter messaging. That study found gum litter fell by up to 86% within two months of deep-cleaning targeted areas and installing signage encouraging people to bin their gum - and crucially, the reduction was still holding six months later.

Councillor Clive English, the council's Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Enforcement, said the results showed "relatively simple measures can significantly reduce gum littering," adding: "By putting chewing gum in a bin after use, everyone can play a part in helping to keep Maidstone clean."

Now in its fifth year, the Chewing Gum Task Force has put £6.46 million into local authority projects nationally and helped clean more than 4.15 million square metres of gum-stained pavement across the UK. Alongside the cleaning itself, participating councils get behaviour-change resources - signage, posters and social media materials - aimed at stopping the problem at the source rather than just mopping it up. Source: Maidstone Borough Council