A whopping forty-six percent of people in Scotland admit that they drop litter despite knowing that it is against the law and they could be fined £50! That is just one of the shocking facts announced today, Wednesday 23 January 2008, by Keep Scotland Beautiful following recent research.

The research findings have been released to coincide with a plea to everyone visiting, living and working in Scotland to have some pride and stop dropping litter – making places look better, reducing the risk to wildlife and increasing community pride.

Programme Manager, Donna Niven said: ‘Dropping litter is not only completely unacceptable, it is against the law. Last year more than 4,000 fixed penalty notices were issued to people caught littering, but it is still costing Scottish local authorities upwards of £70million a year to clean up.

‘Our research highlighted that people felt dropping litter was acceptable because their individual behaviour was of little consequence, especially in areas which were already littered. But, what I’d like people to realise is that if everyone drops even one piece of litter we end up with a huge problem. So I would urge everyone, young and old to play their part’, she added.

Almost half (47%) of the respondents were offended by litter when it was found in their own neighbourhoods or on beaches, with forty-five percent of people being bothered by littered parks. But, in those places which people had a low engagement with, such as business and retail parks, they weren’t nearly so bothered about seeing litter.

The findings also highlighted that a staggering sixty-three percent of 45 to 54 year olds admitted to littering. So despite teenagers and children being perceived as the main litter louts actually all age groups are responsible for the state of our streets and open spaces.

The top five litter items that people were most bothered about were identified as: dog faeces (69%), chewing gum, (49%), food and drink packaging (45%), fast food packaging and left-overs (34%), and needles and plasters (30%).

Ms Niven concluded: ‘These new findings will help us target our Keep Scotland Tidy campaigns at specific audiences helping us to really focus on changing the habits of so many of the Scottish population’.
If you would like to voice your opinions on littering in Scotland please visit www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org and take part in our on-line survey.