Street Cleaning

Street Cleaning costs taxpayers in excess of £500m annually for street cleaning in England, and that doesn’t include parks or other public spaces.

• Nearly half the population (48 per cent) admits to dropping litter.

• It is illegal to drop litter, and you can be fined up to £80 on the spot if you’re caught littering.

• According to a MORI poll in 2002, clean streets come only second to crime and hospitals in a survey of local issues.

• An estimated 122 tons of cigarette butts and cigarette-related litter is dropped every day across the UK.

• Over 69,000 animals killed or injured by litter last year in Britain.

• Litter, such as cigarette butts, plastic bags and other plastics, harms animal and marine life in a variety of ways such as water pollution, when these items are mistaken for food and when creatures get caught up in plastics and get strangled. It is estimated that every year over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 turtles and sea mammals die of litter related causes.

• Over 373,000 pieces of litter were found on beaches in the UK in 2006 – equivalent to 1,989 items per kilometer – the Marine Conservation Society reports a 90 per cent increase in beach litter since 2004.

• The general level of litter has dropped from ‘satisfactory’ to ‘unsatisfactory’ in the last 12 months by Government’s own measures and standards.

• The most recent Government study on local environmental cleanliness showed that there has been a significant increase in roadside litter to moving it into the ‘unsatisfactory’ category for the first time in the six years the survey has been conducted.

• Litter makes an area look dirty and uncared for and attracts more litter. Littered areas are not pleasant to be in and are less likely to be used by people. In contrast, people are more reluctant to litter clean areas.

• Littered items are a lost resource. When things that could otherwise be recycled, like PET, glass bottles and paper, are littered, they do not end up in the recycling stream.

Watson CCS Ltd are available to assist with any local Authorities Street Cleansing anywhere and have an array of cleansing plant and equipment available as and when to deal with seasonal changes and large events.

Call today on 01202 559918