Litter campaigners call on firms to bin poor packaging

The call is part of Keep Britain Tidy's manifesto for tackling litter and improving the quality of people's local environment.

Other measures in the This Is Our Home document include making it easier to catch and fine motorists who throw litter from cars and a new "gold standard" awarded for the cleanest and best-managed towns and cities.

There should also be more research on the best ways to combat litter, from examining the effectiveness of education campaigns to practical measures such as where to put bins.

It said even the ways that public places are designed has an impact on the quality of the local environment and it should be central to planning and design – not an afterthought.

According to Keep Britain Tidy, some 780m a year is spent clearing litter from the streets, while 11 per cent of park management budgets, 64m, is spent repairing vandalised and misused equipment.

Litter, graffiti, fly-tipping and other kinds of anti-social behaviour all have a negative impact on the local environment, and on people's quality of life and their feelings of safety in their neighbourhood, it declared.

Keep Britain Tidy is calling on the next government to adopt a more co-ordinated, cross-departmental approach to tackling the problem and believes local government, voluntary organisations, residents, schools and businesses all need to be involved.

It also wants companies to improve their products and packaging to tackle problems such as smoking-related litter, fast food packaging and chewing gum.

The organisation pointed to the design change to cans 20 years ago which meant that the "blight" of discarded ring pulls disappeared from the UK's streets.

Changes to to products and packaging could include anything from messages on fast food wrappers urging people to put them in the bin to biodegradable chewing gum.

Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive Phil Barton said: "The report provides evidence that people care deeply about the way their local environment looks and how it affects us all, whether it be a littered town centre, graffiti on children's play equipment, through to having safe access to parks and the freedom to walk and enjoy the public spaces we all share."

He said everyone had to work together to deliver a cleaner, greener England, with "high-quality well-managed neighbourhoods".

"By creating and sustaining surroundings which local people are proud of, they will have the chance to thrive and our children will be better placed to grow up healthy, engaged members of society."