Bristol City Council gets 'Ghostbusters-style' backpacks to tackle chewing gum problem

The 'gum-busting' machines are part of a new campaign by the council to tackle the issue after it received a £27,500 grant from the Chewing Gum Task Force.    

It is working with Bristol Waste to roll out the campaign across the city centre, from Baldwin Street to Broadmead.   

The chewing gum removal will be accompanied by signs on bins, bus stops and even the pavement reminding passersby to bin their gum.

Councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment and sustainability Committee at Bristol City Council, said: “Chewing gum stains are not only unsightly but also attract further littering.  

“Cleaner pavements and targeted signage will encourage passersby to respect our city and bin their gum. 

“By focusing on chewing gum removal, we can keep this popular area of Bristol clean and vibrant for millions of residents and visitors, and stop people from getting gum stuck to their shoes.”   

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Dan Kelly, operations director at Bristol Waste, added: “Chewing gum is an ongoing problem in this area and street cleansing of Bristol City Centre costs over £6m every year.  

“This extra funding from Keep Britain Tidy will give us significant power to improve the cleanliness of Bristol’s streets, with a dedicated and specially trained team. 

“We look forward to seeing the public enjoy the fantastic results of their hard work.”

Established by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the Chewing Gum Task Force Grant Scheme is open to councils across the UK who wish to clean up gum in their local areas and invest in long-term behaviour change to prevent gum from being dropped in the first place. 

The Task Force is funded by major gum manufacturers including Mars Wrigley and Perfetti Van Melle, with an investment of up to £10m spread over five years.

Monitoring and evaluation carried out by Behaviour Change – a not-for-profit social enterprise - has shown that in areas that benefited from the first year of funding, a reduced rate of gum littering was still being observed six months after clean-up and the installation of prevention materials.