Roadside Litter
Hundreds of thousands of pieces of litter are dropped on Scotland's roadsides from vehicles each day. This litter mainly includes "food on the go" items such as drink bottles, crisp packets and fast food packaging.
There are three main reasons why throwing litter from cars is an issue:
- Safety - research shows that many near miss car accidents are due to drivers avoiding litter on the road.
- Cost - Roadside litter costs millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money annually to pick up. On busy roads like the M8 traffic cones need to be set out to protect the litter clearing squad. which can create traffic delays.
- Aesthetics – litter is a blight on Scotland’s beautiful countryside, affecting tourism and annoying many Scottish residents.
The problem of roadside litter has worsened since the introduction of more packaging and disposable products and it is apparent that people who don’t normally litter feel that they are safely cocooned in their cars and can therefore get away with it.
Roadside litter is wholly preventable if motorists would only put their litter in a bin or take it home with them. But for the minority of people that don’t do this the police and local authority officers have powers to issue £50 Fixed Penalty Fines direct to drivers witnessed littering from their car.