Redhill gets new Gummy Bins to stamp out sticky problem
News release dated 6 February 2007 about new chewing gum recycling bins in Redhill.
As part of its ongoing campaign to tackle nuisance litter problems Reigate & Banstead Borough Council has introduced its first chewing gum recycling bins in Redhill town centre.
"By putting the bins at convenient locations and offering people the opportunity to recycle their gum we hope to encourage them to dispose of it properly." (Cllr Allen Kay, Executive Member for Environment)
Thirty of the quirky, coloured ‘Gummy Bins’ were put up on lampposts and bus stops around the town last week for people to dispose of their unwanted chewing gum.
The cartridges inside the bins containing the waste gum are collected and recycled into the drainage materials for football pitches and other construction materials.
A shopper disposes of her gum in one of the new Gummy Bins.
A further 70 Gummy Bins are to be added in and around Redhill town centre over the coming weeks and the scheme could be rolled out to other town centres in the borough if the Redhill pilot proves successful.
Changing behaviour
Cllr Allen Kay, Executive Member for Environment, said: “Chewing gum litter is a nuisance everyone would like to get rid of, and the problem has been entrenched for years.
"It is unsightly, unhygienic and difficult to remove. It costs the Council thousands of pounds every year to clean discarded gum off the streets.
“Gummy Bins are a cost effective and environmentally friendly way to tackle the problem. By putting the bins at convenient locations such as bus stops and out side pubs and shops where people often want to dispose of their chewing gum, and by offering them the opportunity to recycle it, we hope to encourage people to dispose of their gum properly.
Chewing gum isn’t biodegradable so the bins help us to solve two problems at once.”
The bins, produced by a Cheshire based company Gummy Bins Ltd, are already in use by more than 20 local authorities across the UK and are proving successful, collecting an average collection of 25,000 pieces of waste chewing gum per year and contributing to significant savings on street cleaning bills.
Phil Cardwell, Operations Director at Gummy Bins, said: “People really like the Gummy Bins – they’re quirky and different, and being able to recycle the gum does seem to change peoples’ behaviour when they dispose of it.
“I hope Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will benefit from the bins as much as our other local authority customers in tackling the chewing gum problem. A recent survey of these areas has revealed reductions of around 75 per cent in chewing gum deposits in the vicinity of the bins.”
Recycling gum
Once a Gummy Bin has been installed, it is plotted on the company’s location map to ensure cartridges are collected on a regular basis and to monitor the site to see which bins are being used the most.
Collected cartridges are emptied, sifted to separate used gum from any other objects that may have been deposited and then cured with an additive to reconstitute it for filtration. The mix is then chopped into fine pieces and added to an aggregate according to what the end product is to be used for.
Chewing gum facts
Government figures show the cost of clearing up chewing gum in the UK is around £150 million per year.
According to the I&DeA in the UK 20 million people consume more than 935 million pack of gum a year.
It is estimated that each piece of gum costs 3p to buy but 10p to clean up.
In 2005, 650,000 tonnes of chewing gum were produced worldwide.
(source Recycling & Waste World magazine)
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
Reigate and Banstead Borough Council is not responsible for the content of external sites.
