At some places in London it seems people are deliberately spitting out their chewing gum on pavements and sidewalks so it gets trodden-in, and becomes a real nuisance. There are many spots in this great city where the unsightly occurrence is becoming a real problem, one place which said enough was enough is Sutton. Over the weekend, a local initiative took place to literally circle out the problem and make people aware of its scale.
Circling out the problem
Last weekend, Sutton Local Council launched their clean streets initiative, which began by making people aware (at least those who weren’t) of the blithe of spat chewing gum which has become a major problem for Sutton High Street. Participants in the program used colour chalk to circle over six hundred spat and trodden-in pieces of chewing gum all along Sutton High St. The Council’s Clean Streets Initiative is intended to make people aware of how certain individual’s bad habits and lack of manners are affecting everyone’s local living environment for the worse. The program is sponsored by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
Local authorities are really fed up with the problem and have decided to make it known to those who cause it – the money spent on cleaning the gummy nuisance off pavements and footpaths costs fifty times more than the price of a chewing gum. Over a period of one year, the costs of cleaning chewing gum off the streets amounts to a hefty sum, money which can be spend on improving the local community in many different ways.
| Cost of buying a single piece of chewing gum – 3 pence | Cost of cleaning the same single piece of chewing gum off the street – 1.5 British pounds |
Don’t spit – recycle
In addition to circling and pointing out the problem to the public, Sutton Council’s volunteers also handed out bright pink mini bins where people could spit out their chewing gum, instead of doing so on the footpath. The mini gum bins were themselves made of recycled chewing gum. This was also done in an effort to show that even something seemingly useless as a chewed gum can also be recycled and turned into something useful. Hopefully the message gets through. There were also a number of proper sized bright pink gum bins placed in key locations on and around Sutton High St where people were able to either spit their gum, or toss out the mini gum bins intended for personal use.
The Clean Streets initiative headed by Sutton Local Council will involve a number of upcoming events so to say, looking to make the public aware and educate people of how easy it is to do the right thing and make a difference. Council says that in a time when local budgets are being slashed more and more with each passing year, it makes perfect sense to save public money from things like cleaning nuisance chewing gum off the streets, so it could be put to better use instead.
