Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress the Chewing Gum Taskforce has made on reducing litter.

The Secretary of State has not had recent discussions with the recycling industry on recycling chewing gum.

Defra, in partnership with chewing gum producers, has established the Chewing Gum Task Force through which gum producers will invest up to £10 million over five years to help tackle gum littering and staining.

In 2022, the Task Force provided funding of £1.25 million to help more than 40 councils across the UK remove gum stains from high streets. By combining targeted street cleaning with specially designed signage encouraging people to bin their gum, also provide by the Task Force, participating councils achieved reductions in gum littering of up to 80% in the first two months. Further details can be found in the Year One Annual Report here: https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/local-authorities/reduce-litter/gum-litter/chewing-gum-task-force.

The Task Force is currently running a similar scheme for local councils in 2023.