Chewing gum makers 'should help clean up'

Chewing gum makers should help pay for the growing cost of removing their product from the country's streets, councils have said.

Almost all main shopping streets and 64% of all roads and pavements are stained by chewing gum, according to Keep Britain Tidy.

And, while the average piece of gum costs just 3p, it costs councils up to 50 times that to clean up every square metre of pavement.

The Local Government Association has said it is time the chewing gum industry paid its share of the £60m-a-year cost of cleaning up the streets of England and Wales.

They also encouraged gum manufacturers to switch to biodegradable forms of gum which do not require specialist equipment to remove from pavements. Full story...

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