Threat to clean streets

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The cleanliness of our streets has improved for the third year in succession, says Tidy NI, but a rising tide of sweet wrappers and cigarette butts is threatening to reverse the trend.

These findings are part of an extensive TIDY Northern Ireland survey released on Tuesday 15 April that shows 92% of streets met government cleanliness guidelines during 2007. While this is an improvement on the 13% failure rate of the previous year, both cigarette litter and confectionery related litter has been on the increase during the same period.

“It is pleasing to see confirmation that Northern Ireland is getting cleaner, but it is a constant battle to keep litter off our streets and we are now seeing some worrying trends that need to be addressed immediately,”

said TIDY Northern Ireland spokesman Nigel Frazer.

“Sadly it is no surprise to see an increase in cigarette litter following the introduction of the public smoking ban, but the dramatic rise in confectionery litter is an unexpected and worrying development. This form of litter is now outnumbering old chewing gum deposits for the first time, and if we are to continue reporting improvements in cleanliness levels then people need to change their attitudes immediately.

"It requires very little effort to hold onto rubbish until you are near a suitable place to dispose of it, but people’s careless attitude to the problem means councils are forced to spend huge chunks of the rate payer’s money on cleaning up the mess we leave in our wake.”

Over the past year surveyors have scrutinised almost 1,000 public sites in the province’s largest annual litter survey, searching for litter and dirt on the pavements and recording the types and sources of litter across a variety of different land use types.

The 2007 Borough Cleanliness Survey revealed that cigarette litter is present on almost half of our streets, with confectionery litter found on 38% of areas surveyed. While dog fouling is regarded as one of the worst forms of litter it was found to be one of the least frequent offenders, being found on only five percent of the areas examined.

Nigel Frazer continued, “It is pleasing to note that in a recently published report by Keep Britain Tidy in England they have shown an increase in litter on their streets whereas here in Northern Ireland we are showing a decrease - something to be pleased about!”

For the second year in a row Peripheral Retail Developments outside town and city centres returned the poorest results, while there also proved to be a significant difference between the cleanliness levels in low density and high density residential areas. Areas of low density housing received an impressive 98% pass rate, while in contrast more than one in ten areas of higher density housing failed to meet the required standards.

Sample of the Borough Cleanliness Survey findings:

Litter Pollution Index – 11% failure rate
Detritus Pollution Index – 5% failure rate
Cleanliness Pollution Index – 8% failure rate

Land Use Types – failure rates:
Top 3:

Low Density Housing 2%;
Town & City Centres 5%;
Rural 6%.

Bottom 3:

Peripheral Retail 21%;
High Density Housing 11%;
Recreational 11%.

Most Common Litter Types – Percentage of areas polluted:

Cigarette Litter – 48%;
Confectionery – 38%;
Old Chewing Gum – 34%

The full report is available for download on www.tidynorthernireland.org.

TIDY Northern Ireland, an anti-litter charity, is the province’s leading authority on litter issues, and provides a unique service to communities, businesses, councils and schools throughout Northern Ireland.

Tidy Northern Ireland runs the Keep Northern Ireland Tidy Campaigns, and manages the Northern Ireland Borough Cleanliness Survey, TIDY Business, TIDY Communities, Eco-Schools, and the Blue Flag scheme for clean beaches and marinas in Northern Ireland.


Tidy Northern Ireland | Nigel Frazer | 17 Apr 2008
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