CHEWING GUM

One way of looking at it is that it is a laughable waste of public money. Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister, used £60,170 of taxpayers' money to pay for a chewing gum segmentation survey, commissioned by the Chewing Action Group. The 162-page survey, based on 1,000 street interviews, has furnished the Government with "valuable information about the different ways in which gum chewers dispose of gum after use, and will assist by informing campaigns to change behaviour," Mr Michael said.

It will help his department as it draws up the Clean Neighbourhoods Bill which will give councils new powers to deal with litter and other petty annoyances. Though discarded chewing gum may seem like a small thing to engage the attention of ministers, the thinking behind it is the so-called "broken-window" effect: that if you deal with the little things that make a neighbourhood unpleasant, it becomes much easier to tackle more serious forms of anti-social behaviour.

Anne McIntosh, the Tory environment spokeswoman, dismissed the survey as "ridiculous", but agreed that the problem is serious. A law passed in Margaret Thatcher's time, introducing on-the-spot fines for those who discard gum, has not worked. In 2003, local councils received half a million complaints about gum on pavements. Clearing gum costs £150m annually in the UK. It cost £8,500 in 2003 just to remove it from Trafalgar Square.

At any time, there are about 300,000 pieces of gum stuck to benches and pavements in Oxford Street. Information gathered in the survey includes details about the sort of kids who chew gum, why they do it, how they dispose of it, and why those who leave it on the pavement do not know or do not care that they are a nuisance. There are 28 million gum chewers in the UK, spending over £240m on 935 million packets a year.

The typical chewer is a female from the north of England, aged under 24, who either does not read a newspaper or reads The Sun. The survey identifies five types, and provides an artist's line drawings of them. The "Selfish Cleanser" is a well-dressed young woman who chews gum because it freshens her breath or helps her stop smoking. She dislikes the sight of other people's discarded gum, but does not give much thought to others when disposing of her own. She will happily spit it out of her car window.

The"Bravado" is a young, male Sun reader who likes people to see him chewing gum. People in this group give even less thought to others as they dispose of their gum. They think it is smart to spit out the gum and kick it. The "Excuses, Excuses" type is also anti-social about disposing gum, but does not show off. "If I was with a guy, I'd do it while he wasn't looking," one said. The type is made up primarily of girls for whom gum is a substitute for sweets.

The "Whatever" is most likely to be a 14 to 18-year-old who does not read any newspapers. The favourite disposal method is throwing or spitting the gum on the floor. The "Revolted" gum chewer is less of a problem, because she hates other people's discarded gum, so she is careful about putting her own in the bin or throwing it down a drain. She is also more likely than others to be a southerner, and a Daily Mail reader. (Source: The Independent)

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), headed by Derby South MP Mrs Beckett has come up with a list of ideas for improving the quality of life in towns and cities across the UK by making chewing gum harder to buy. These include inviting shops to agree to restrict the sale of chewing gum in areas where there is a problem with people dropping gum.

Another option is for shopkeepers and manufacturers to be asked to cover some of local council's costs in clearing up the sticky mess. Every year an estimated 20m people in Britain spend £294m on 935m packets of chewing gum. It costs Derby City Council more than £2,000 a year to remove gum from public places by scraping it off with metal hoes. The council is considering spending £25,000 coating certain city streets with a sealant to make it easier to remove chewing gum, but is waiting for the results of a trial in Birmingham before going ahead.

Councillor Ashok Kalia, cabinet member for environment and direct services, felt DEFRA was right to call on manufacturers to do more. He said, "I don't think they should be asked to pay for street cleaning, but I think with the huge profits they make they should spend more on research to find biodegradable types of chewing gum. As far as shopkeepers go, all we can do is make them aware of the problems chewing gum causes. We've done this fairly successfully with the sale of solvents, but at the end of the day it's up to them."

A DEFRA spokesman said, "These ideas have been put out to consultation with councils, the police, community and business groups. They're in their very early stages and there are no plans as yet to introduce any new laws relating to the sale of chewing gum."

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