Chewing gum clean-up team launches in Newcastle-under-Lyme
The town's getting a grant to tackle the sticky problem
Officials at Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council say they're pleased that the authority has received a grant from the UK's Chewing Gum Task Force.
The money will be used to launch a local task force to help clean up chewing gum litter in the town centre.
It'll fund methods, equipment and people to be out and about removing gum litter from streets and the installation of clear signs to encourage people not to drop gum in the future.
The Chewing Gum Task Force is supported by the chewing gum industry and helps councils tackle this common problem, major chewing gum producers involved include Mars Wrigley, Perfetti Van Melle and a producer of nicotine replacement therapy gum.
The Task Force was established by Defra and is administered by Keep Britain Tidy, with the chewing gum firms investing up to £10 million over five years to achieve two objectives: cleaning up historic gum staining and changing behaviour so that more people bin their gum.
Over the last four years the task force has awarded over £4.88 million in grants, cleaned over 3.4 million square meters of pavements, and reduced gum littering by up to 80%.
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