Food On The Go Litter
The term "food-on-the-go litter" refers not only to food debris, but to all items relating to food and drink which is regularly eaten on the move - containers in which take-away food is packaged; chip wrappers, burger or pizza boxes; packaging such as sandwich boxes and bakery bags, sweetie wrappers, and crisp packets; drinks bottles; and also disposable barbeques
Food-on-the-go litter has a major affect on the quality of life of local residents. It can be dangerous for wildlife and pets and it can attract rodents. It also has a detrimental affect on business – acting as a potential negative advertisement - tourism and the local economy and it costs local authorities and other duty bodies millions of pounds to clear up every year along with other litter found on our streets.
The main sources of food-on-the-go litter are the very people that it most affects: members of the public and fast food operators. Recent research carried out by Keep Scotland Tidy highlighted that 87% of people thought of food and drink packaging as litter, while 34% categorised fast food packaging and leftovers amongst the three items of litter that most bothered them.
Every year approximately 50% of Scotland surveyed shows a presence of litter relating specifically to food-on-the-go.
In 2008/09 53% of streets (in 31 out of the 32 Local Authorities areas surveyed) had food-on-the-go litter recorded on them. Typical places in which food-on-the-go litter can accumulate include transport facilities (such as bus and railway stations), roadsides, bridleways, public paths, seaside promenades, industrial areas, retail and commercial areas, social housing areas and near schools.
Within the food-on-the-go litter term Keep Scotland Tidy identifies that there is also a large proportion of litter which can be traced back specifically to take-away food – this is termed fast food litter. It does not include confectionary and drink related litter.
The presence of fast food litter has increased in the past five years and in 2008/2009 11% of streets (in 31 out of the 32 Local Authorities areas surveyed) were found to have fast food litter items on them.
To find out more about food-on-the-go litter, the work of Keep Scotland Tidy and what you can do to help reduce it please visit our campaign pages.