Calls for fines as UK litter rises

More fines should be handed out to litterbugs as figures show the amount of rubbish left around Britain has rocketed in the last few decades, a report published on Monday said.

Since the 1960s, there has been a 500 percent increase in the level of litter strewn across the country, leaving local authorities with a clean-up bill of 500 million pounds, the study said.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Policy Exchange think tank which carried out the research called for a new national body to coordinate anti-littering initiatives and tougher action on offenders.

"Fines are an essential enforcement tool, and one which needs to be applied far more consistently than is currently the case," said author Bill Bryson, President of the CPRE.

Companies in heavily littered areas lose business and rubbish creates a sense of neglect in local communities, fuelling anti-social behaviour and crime, the report said.

It added that 37 percent of people questioned thought that a lack of bins justified littering and than more than nine in 10 thought providing more bins would help reduce the problem.

Campaigners called for deposit schemes whereby people are paid to return bottles and cans, saying similar projects abroad had proved successful.

"Over time, if we better educate people and stop the perception that litter is somehow `someone else's problem', then we can get to the root causes of this blight on our towns and countryside," said Ben Caldecott, Head of the Policy Exchange's Environment and Energy Unit.

The report said there was inconsistent use of fines, with too few councils using the power and a tendency not to penalise the worst offenders such as young urban males, whom wardens saw as threatening and dangerous.

"We need community buy-in to the fight against litter; we must build civic pride in clean and tidy environments, with communities competing to be spotless," Bryson said.

"Only then can we stop the exasperating and routine vandalism of a country so rich in natural, cultural and built heritage."