Member of public spends £60,000 cleaning up after roadside litter

Member of public foots £60,000 bill to clean up litter

The personal cost incurred by an anti-litter campaigner named Danny Lucas, who spent the money to clear roadside litter. The story highlights the significant problem of roadside litter in the UK and the costs associated with it, with national agencies and local councils also spending vast sums on the issue.  

An activist, Danny Lucas, spent £60,000 of his own money to clean up roadside litter, which was featured on This Morning and in The Times. 

The problem: This individual effort was motivated by the overwhelming amount of litter found on roadsides, which included energy drink cans, fast-food containers, and cigarette packets.  Governmental cost: The cost is not limited to private citizens; local authorities in England spent approximately £822 million on street cleansing in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a figure that includes litter and fly-tipping removal.  National Highways' stance: National Highways, the government agency responsible for England's roads, states that constant clearing disrupts traffic and that their focus is on behavioral change and deterring littering through sporadic anti-littering messages.  Enforcement: As a deterrent, National Highways has also been exploring pilot schemes to penalize people caught dumping rubbish in lay-bys.