Litter research

We have carried out research into public behaviour and attitudes towards littering.

Key findings

Littering behaviour

Since 2004, the number of people who admit to littering has dropped 19 per cent.

The most commonly dropped items of litter are:

cigarette butts
paper
pieces of fruit.

The people most likely to litter are:

young people (64 per cent)
smokers (60 per cent)
unmarried people (48 per cent)
children under the age of 12 (48 per cent).

The main reasons for littering are:

laziness
lack of facilities
carelessness
ignorance
not caring.

Almost everyone we surveyed agreed that it is up to individuals to take responsibility for litter.

Three in four people surveyed also supported stronger penalties for dropping litter.

Anti-litter advertising

We also asked people what they thought about our anti-litter advertisements:

around 75 per cent recalled our advertising
around 53 per cent thought our advertisements were effective in highlighting littering behaviour
18 per cent recalled our 'don't drop it, stop it' campaign and 12 per cent remembered our 'so why do you do it here?' message.