News Release

The information contained within this release was accurate at the time of writing, 23 October 2006.

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Bin the gum

Bin the gum, that’s the message from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council as it installs 50 brand new ‘Gummy Bins’ around the top of town in Basingstoke on Tuesday 24 October.

The quirky bins are a simple solution to the sticky problem that blights our streets. The bins are a convenient and effective way to dispose of gum rather than carelessly throwing it away. Passers by will be given balloons and information about gummy bins and how they help the environment by ‘Mr Gummy’ the Gummy Bin mascot.

During the summer the council spent £10,000 on a clean up as part of the borough’s clean safe streets campaign before the bins hit the streets. The ‘Gummy Bin’ scheme which includes the bins and the on-going collection of the gum is costing £2,500. The installation of the bins is hoped to save money and keep our streets cleaner. Not only will our streets be cleaner if everyone does their bit and bins the gum, but all that discarded gum will be recycled for future use in the construction industry, as filtration systems for football pitches or underlay for running tracks.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment and Community Services Cllr Elaine Still said: “Bin your gum and do your bit to keep our streets clean. We spent £10,000 blitzing gum from the streets during the summer and we want to keep them clean and save money in the future on cleaning it up. With 50 bins around the top of town it should be easy to put discarded gum in the gummy bins. The bins are a great idea and have made a real difference for other councils so we hope they’ll get everyone using them in Basingstoke.”

Nigel Bill, MD of Gummy Bins, explains the Gummy Bin concept: “The main problem with chewing gum is that, because it’s so widespread, people no longer even think of it as litter. With Gummy Bins, the chewing gum can be recycled as underlay for sports tracks and filtration systems for football pitches. Chewing gum isn’t biodegradable and because people are increasingly aware of the environment, the vast majority will use a Gummy Bin instead of dropping their gum thoughtlessly on the floor.
“We’ve had some great results already with 15 local councils around the UK showing that a typical 50 bin installation can collect approximately 25,000 pieces of discarded gum per year*. That’s an awful lot of gum, a huge saving in cleaning bills and a much more pleasant environment in which to live and work.”



Notes to editors:


650 metric tonnes of chewing gum were produced worldwide in 2005 and predictions are that the quantity will reach over 1 billion tonnes in 5 years time.

935 million packs of gum are chewed by 28 million people in the UK every year.

80-90% of chewing gum is not disposed of in any litter receptacle and until the introduction of Gummy Bins, none was recycled.

A piece of gum costs 3p to buy but can cost from 10p to £1.50 per piece to clean up.

In June 2005, discarded chewing gum was formally defined as litter for the first time under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act.