Work is underway on a number of city centre streets to clean the pavements of unsightly chewing gum and staining.
The targeted clean-up process, which is being carried out by Sheffield City Council, was made possible following a £27,500 grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force, established by DEFRA and run by Keep Britain Tidy.
The council is one of 52 local authorities who have benefitted from this grant and the clean-up operation will focus on several locations that has a thriving night-time economy and will supplement the cleaning work already carried out by Amey under the Streets Ahead PFI contract.
Contractors from specialist cleaning firm, Nordic Products and Services Ltd have already been out on Carver Street and Division Street and in the coming weeks, pavements on Rockingham Street and Westfield Terrace will also see chewing gum, and resulting staining, removed.
Once the clean-up work has been completed, gum littering prevention signs, provided by Behaviour Change, will be installed reminding people to dispose of their gum appropriately rather than dropping it on the pavements.
We want to clean up the pavements at popular night-time destinations which have been tarnished by people dropping chewing gum and bring the streets in line with the on-going development of the city centre.
Chewing gum on pavements can cause a nuisance as not only does it look unsightly, but it can end up on the soles of people’s shoes which can be incredibly difficult to remove.
I’ve seen the clean-up on Carver Street and what a difference it has made to the area, so I’d urge people who do chew gum to make sure they dispose of it properly in bins rather than dropping it on the streets.
Councillor Joe Otten, chair of Sheffield City Council’s Environmental Services and Regulation Policy Committee.
It is estimated that the annual clean-up cost of chewing gum for councils in the UK is around £7 million and, according to Keep Britain Tidy, around 77% of England’s streets and 99% of retail sites are stained with gum.