Now is really not the time to go into the fast food business. It seems that if the government doesn’t get its wish to see you hanged, drawn and quarter-poundered in the town square for forcing the population to become obese, the litter lobby will have you up for failing in after-sales street sweeping.
The Keep Britain Tidy people have just conducted a rather revealing and oddly fascinating city by city survey of Untidy Britain, focusing on fast food wrappers. Seems that London’s litter of choice is disposable coffee cups (at 23%), with Greggs (16%) and McDonalds (14%) in second and third places. Nationwide, McDonalds account for 29% of all foodie street waste, whilst unbranded fish and chip packaging clutters 21% of our gutters, and Greggs brings up the rear with 18%. Recommendations are made that fast food vendors should do more to help lower litter levels - offer incentives to eat in, use less packaging, provide more bins. A simultaneous study was carried out on negative brand image i.e. the damage done to a brand name when seen as street rubbish (although it doesn’t seem to have done bananas any harm).
Now Londonist isn’t a huge Mcfan, but it seems to us that short of buying their own rubbish trucks there is little else they could do to help keep our streets rubbish free. There are huge bins all over their premises, and little McHelpers rushing backwards and forwards sweeping and cleaning. The same is true to a lesser extent of most of the chains. The fact is that as a nation we have become inconsiderate, lazy and disrespectful when it comes to our streetscapes. Walk down a street, any street, and before too long you will see a kid, any kid, discard a wrapper, any wrapper. We’re just not bovvered enough.
O mores! What an il-litter-ate lot we have become.
Redefined litter by nic0 from the Londonist flickr pool
