Chewing Gum Action Group

Welcome to the Chewing Gum Action Group page - changing the attitudes and behaviour of people who drop chewing gum. Bin It Your Way!

Of all the commonly littered things, one can’t be swept away: chewing gum. So leading gum companies, governments and the charity Keep Britain Tidy run an annual campaign to urge people to dispose of their gum correctly.

Entering its eighth year, the Chewing Gum Action Group works with local authorities across the U. K. through providing innovative public education campaigns. It works, too. In participating communities, gum litter has dropped by about 50 per cent—saving local authorities money in cleansing costs.

The public education is funded by gum manufacturers: Mondelez International (own Cadbury brand), Perfetti Van Melle and The Wrigley Company; the group also receives support from Defra, the Scottish and Welsh governments, Keep Wales Tidy and Zero Waste Scotland. In all, it’s a unique example of competing companies pooling resources to educate consumers about how to properly dispose of their product.

Each year, local authorities are invited to submit applications for the programme to run in their area. In 2012, 14 were selected across England, Scotland and Wales, in which people were urged—in keeping with the Olympic and Paralympic theme—to “do their country” proud and bin their gum.

Cardiff, Nottingham, Carmenthenshire and Coventry saw the biggest decline in gum litter, with reductions of more than 85 per cent. Overall, gum litter dropped by almost 54 per cent (excluding results from some London boroughs, where heavy snow affected the surveying).

Participating local authorities receive, at no cost, display advertising and earned media support. The theme changes each year, but the results are remarkably constant. Over the last five years, gum litter has fallen by at least 43 per cent, as verified by physical counts before and after the campaign runs.

In return, local authorities are asked to magnify the campaign’s message by working with local retailers and pitching in to give it a high-profile local launch. Through this collaboration, each partner leverages the other’s resources to solve a problem that plagues communities across the U. K.

Indeed, each year, Keep Britain Tidy performs a survey of local environmental quality in England, which tracks how clean places are by measuring different issues. In 2012, gum staining was found in 68 per cent of sites.

While that’s down slightly from 2011, it still speaks to a significant problem that contributes to the more than £1-billion local authorities spend each year dealing with litter.

This year's campaign is scheduled for launch on 7 October 2013.