New bins in Wandsworth to tackle gum mess

Wandsworth Council has signed a major contract with a pioneering chewing gum recycling company to help keep those white splodges off the borough’s streets.

A number of noticeable pink bins have been placed around Clapham Junction railway station and Tooting Broadway tube station in a bid to encourage people to put their gum in the bin rather than drop it on the pavement.

The bins, which are part of the council’s MyWandsworth campaign to keep the borough looking clean and tidy, will not only improve the local environment but will contribute to reducing cleaning costs for the council. When the bin is full, the Gumdrop bins are taken away and all the waste gum inside one bin will be recycled to make three more bins.

Steffi Sutters, the council’s cabinet member for community services and open spaces, said: “There just isn’t the opportunity to recycle your chewing gum anywhere. But by providing these striking bins we are giving people something to use to get rid of their gum and something which will improve their local environment. This is just one of the many ways – like our SMART bin trial – where we are turning to technology and innovative solutions to keep our borough looking at its best.”

Wandsworth has set itself  an ambitious goal to be inner-London’s greenest council – with the target of being carbon neutral by 2030 and a zero-emission council by 2050. If the bins around the two stations are a success the scheme could be rolled-out borough-wide.