Chewing Gum and Pavements

Used chewing gum has spoiled and  is spoiling our pavements and many other walking areas and it is happening across most of the world. In the UK It costs £1. 50 to remove one such offending mark. Singapore forbids the purchase and import  of chewing gum and imposes  fines of up to $700 dollars ( £400) for spitting it out on a pavement.http://bit.ly/2cW1axe

Public awareness of six gross side effects of gum might influence consumption favourably for some http://bit.ly/1m2pfgU but probably not the disposal problem for most..

The annual bill of  £60 million to clean our streets of discarded chewing gum http://bit.ly/2nXyV1o                               should be borne by the gum manufacturers, one of which makes well over £200 million annually    http://bit.ly/2odW54c. However ideal it is unlikely to come to pass.

I believe the proper approach by the Government in the first place is to force manufacturers to package all chewing gum with an acceptable means of the discarding or disposing of it. This could be small booklet of papers or the packaging itself to contain the discarded gum. Once wrapped the gum can be cleanly pocketed or otherwise disposed of. Even on a pavement, once ‘wrapped’ it will not stick!  

Have it as a trial along with well publicized warning warning that failure of this to work will invoke serious fines or even abolition of gum for sale.  

The problem has been around for 169 years; let’s stop it now ! http://bit.ly/2oPtd5G