This is going to be part of a short series of blog posts where we try and give the general public an idea of why there is so much litter along the UK’s roads and also start helping people to take action.
We say ‘start helping people to take action’ because, unfortunately, responsibility for litter clearance can be annoyingly complicated. This post is a summary of the simple part.
Anyway – you may have noticed that the UK’s road network is often heavily littered with everything from large debris to road signs to cans, bottles and other packaging. It makes for pretty depressing viewing.
But what can you do as a member of the general public? Who do you go to? Who is accountable?
The simple part to this answer is that the motorways are managed by Highways England. So if you want to report a particularly littered motorway stretch, you can email them on info@highwaysengland.co.uk
Keep your email short and to-the-point, be specific about where the litter is and ask them to clear it away. If you don’t get a reply or see any action taken, email again. If you want to let us know how you get on and if you get any response, please do – we like to hear real-life stories and may share them on this blog. We can be contacted on info@cleanupbritain.org or on Twitter @cleanupbritain
We now get to the next (and more problematic) part – the A-roads. These are often the most heavily littered for reasons that will become clear.
So – Highways England are responsible for some of the A-roads; the map below is the only information Highways England release to clarify which roads/stretches of roads those are. You’ll notice there is no detail about which specific junctions are covered by them – we are working to get more detail on this as well as getting a higher resolution image. Anyway you can, in theory, simply do the same as above to report litter on these roads/stretches of roads.
However, the rest of the A-road network is managed by local borough and district councils, meaning some A-roads may go through 6 or 7 of these. There are frequently no signs showing which council is responsible for which stretch, no obvious way to report litter and there is the complication that the councils don’t have the power to close roads to litter-pick – something which is often used as a reason not to litter-pick. It is also often not clear who looks after roundabouts, slip roads and connecting roads.
We will be providing more detail on this as well as some suggestions about what to do about it in our next post.
In the meantime, at least you know who to approach about the motorways…
Maidstone council were involved in a pilot project to use Littercam, a tech company using cctv and AI to detect and prosecute vehicle owners who litter. It started in 2021 but I can find no details of how it progressed. Was hopeful this tech could really be a game charger for enforcement of the law. What happened in the pilot?
I routinely drive between the Isle of Sheppey and Chatham. I am astonished how much litter and refuse is strewn at the side of the A249 and the M2,
particularly the M2 slip roads.
It is getting progressively worse and the Highways
Agency appear to be going absolutely nothing
about it.
Sadly I feel I am witnessing the Garden of England becoming the Litter Dump of England – why aren’t Kent County Council pressing for action on this.
Same in Scotland, all main roads are litter dump, this was not as bad few years ago. Let’s postpone net0 and clean our roads first. Invest in cameras and prosecute ppl that throws litter on the roads
I drove from Exeter to Tunbridge Wells and the A303 and M3 were a disgrace. An almost constant stream of all sorts of litter, but also detritus left by authorities, such as random traffic cones. We now can not criticise any other nation when ours is so filthy. Highways Agency have not even replied to my email.
Wow, I am an expat Canadian who lives in Florida and now the UK. The amount of litter I see in Cambridgeshire is staggering. Especially the plastic caught in trees.
Florida has a couple of schemes.
Those on community service are tasked with cleaning up the roads. A mile or two of a lane is cordoned off for safety.
Offenders in jail are used to pick up trash. Mostly those who with DUI of minor offenses.
Local businesses adopt stretches of road and they pay for or volunteer to pick up litter. For that there is a sign stating which business is responsible.
I have helped pick up litter where I now live and our citify has a very active volunteer team.
I agree with more surveillance and prosecution as this not only is a blight but outs wildlife at harm.
I have recently travelled from North Wales to The Trossacks in Scotland and also NW to Eastbourne. I can confirm that most of the motorways and A roads are ankle deep in rubbish. Alot of it is caught up in the hedgerows, which are the wildlife’s corridors. It’s truly horrific and depressing. I despair of the people of this country and our authorities who allow this to continue. Police crime tape is a major contributor also bits of car wreckage. Various council cones and rusty metal signs left behind. When the people who are supposed to uphold the law do it what hope is there. I shudder to think what foreign visitors must think of us. Shame on you litter louts and authorities you’re disgusting.
A1 Newark – Grantham . The amount of litter on the road side is appalling. When asked, Highways Dept said they cannot litter pick whilst the carriageway is open for obvious safety reasons, however, they can’t close the carriageway just for a litter pick as it is a major road so it will cause disruption, therefore if at any point a stretch of road is closed for other maintenance issues, they would take this opportunity to do a quick litter pick. I think they are fighting a losing battle. HELP!!!!!
Drove from Durham to London motorway A1, A1M, MI littered with torn plastic bags. Stretch gets bad from Leeds to Sheffield.
Why are councils, or highways agencies not cleaning?
Where is the litter coming from? Driving at 70 MPH on motorway, no sane motorists will even think of throwing litter.
Time to put Points on Driving licence along with fine.
Pity beautiful country sight turning into eye sore.
After driving on the weekend from Sevenoaks to Gravesend (not the most glam journey at the best of times!) I’ve done nothing but think about why on earth it has come to pass that our roads are so utterly disgusting! What bugs me the most is that there seems to be no plan to stop it at its root cause…people with the mentality to think that ‘someone else will do it’. When I was at secondary achool (I’m 49) we had litter picking duty. If we dropped it, we ended up picking it up so that was a quick learning curve right there! Of course our children aren’t able to do that any more as it’s a ‘health and safety’ issue (I have 2 girls and I have no aversion to them litter picking whatsoever) We have to educate from the bottom up…as with so many other things. The A21 Sev to Tonbridge is also woeful. Sad times…but I’m sure something can be done?
From reading these comments it seems we are not alone in Sussex and clearly it’s a nationwide problem which is even more depressing to think about. The litter here is awful on most roads but the A23 into Brighton is like driving into an apocalypse. Sofas, mattresses, huge swathes of plastic all mixed in with abandoned cones, road signs, lamps. All of which have been there for months. It’s an embarrassment. I’m almost glad to read I am not alone in the despair it makes us feel. Hard to summon any national pride that’s for sure.
What can we do?
Anyone else think we should make prisoners and unemployed welfare claimants spend time litter picking to earn their keep? Might go some way to cleaning this dump of a country. But ultimately need to educate the low breeds that throw their trash out the car window.
Quite agree yes, including illegal immigrants whilst awaiting processing.
Yes I do , but you would be faced with the growing band of woke “ do gooders” so any such plans will get thwarted within seconds. Education of thick heads isn’t easy but that’s where it needs to start.
The A21 is absolutely disgusting , from where I join at sevenoaks to bexhilll turnoff just covered in litter , lay bys are full of discarded plastic , cans and tyres . Somebody needs to do something as the problem is getting worse .
We have just retuned from a round trip from Suffolk to Yorkshire and back on the A14 and A1 and I can honestly say both roads are awash with filth and debris. On one short stretch of the A14 I counted nearly 100 shredded tyres as well as mile after mile of plastic, cans, bottles, fast food packaging, car crash debris, cones and abandoned metal sign frames. Most lay-bys were strewn with rubbish and overflowing bins and even an abandoned armchair! As one who taught my children that the full force of my anger would reign down on them if they so much as dropped a sweet wrapper, I find it so hard to understand the mentality of “litterers”. But equally where are the agencies responsible for cleaning and what are they doing about it? It appears the answer is depressingly very little. Yet somehow other countries manage to do a much better job-why oh why can’t we????
I’m just traveling up the a14/a1 back home to Yorkshire after a trip to France and I can’t believe the amount of tyres at the side of this road. I’ve attempted to report it to the Highways Agency on their website and get the usual twaddle about it being a local litter problem for the local council, how can it possibly be??? It’s caused by the A14 traffic so it should be a Highway maintenance issue surely? On another note french roads pretty much litter free, why?
I now have to take a black bin liner with me when I go on my daily dog walks. I live in a prosperous, rural part of Lincolnshire and yet every field, country lane, river way, footpath and pavement that I walk along is strewn with rubbish. I pick up a worrying amount of empty beer, cans and spirit bottles, clearly thrown from cars. I literally filled a black bin liner with rubbish this morning just walking around the perimeter of fields with farmer’s plastic sheeting, dog Pooh in bags 😳, plus all usual single use plastic, all blowing into the stream and hedgerows. I despair when even the supposed caretakers of our countryside (farmers) don’t even seem to give a toss.
Situation is becoming worse in front of our eyes yet I can find no articles anywhere on anything that is proactively being done to heal or reverse the problem. Clean ups are all well and good and obviously desperately needed but the root of the problem has to be tackled otherwise there’s no hope. Travelling in Europe is evidence that other countries can manage it so why not us? There has to be a fundamental shift in attitudes and an instillation of care for our environment. Does anyone know of anything that’s being done by government to solve this?
It is so unbelievably depressing the amount of litter on the sides of our A roads, I feel embarrassed for our visitors and tourist, how disgusting it looks. I drive a lot for my job and the A34 is dreadful, as is the A4047. The A404 from the High Wycombe round about towards Marlow is unbelievable. Just like people have tipped 100’s of bags worth of household waste on either side of the roads…..and no one cleans it up. I’ve complained to numerous councils but just get an automated response saying my complaint has been sent to the appropriate team and the request is closed. But still nothing is done 🙁
Horrendous amount of rubbish everywhere.
It also blows out of the recycling lorries on their travels as well and I’ve never seen a maintenance team pick up before cutting. They just shred what’s there into thousands of pcs.
It’s a shit show in all directions but ultimately filters down from the government. The cost should be born by the organisations that filter fast food on to the network. But it’s not just the roads. Parks, country side beach. No where is clean anymore.
Think it’s worse since we started recycling. Loose items in a bin is not a good idea. We should bag our recycling so it can’t get blown all over the place when it’s windy or blow back out of the lorries.
Last week we made the journey from Penzance to Portsmouth and Brighton to see family and friends. By the time we got to Exeter we started noticing increasing amounts of rubbish on the roadsides and on trips from Portsmouth to Brighton it was ridiculous – we look like a third world country!
If some counties like Cornwall and Devon can keep the A30 virtually litter free why is it that Somerset and Wiltshire have a much higher level and Hampshire and West Sussex are appalling?
Have we no sense of national pride anymore?
I believe this is the number 1 threat to our well being as a nation and something needs to be done to change behaviours and that starts with education and prevention and instil a sense of pride and passion for our country.
Education would need to take place at school because we have generational issues with parents who litter so their offspring do the same. Right minded parents ensure their children behave responsibly, but that does not mean to say they will.
Prevention comes in many guises, firstly local councils should use digital messaging warning people not to drop litter as they enter council jurisdictions. Simple messaging such as, Do Not Drop Litter – You are being Observed – Large Fines imposed. This would make morons think twice about catapulting waste from their cars.
Glass, plastic and cans should be exchanged for tokens so that these can be used as currency in shops. This would act as an incentive for some – this sort of scheme has worked on the continent.
People who are caught littering or fly tipping should be made to pick litter as community service work. This may seem draconian, but it’s the only way to adjust the social problem that exists.
There should be naming and shaming at every possible opportunity, so it becomes as socially unacceptable like smoking indoors.
Finally I am sick and tired of seeing our country used as a bin and it concerns me to think that if a person thinks it’s ok to drop litter without a moments thought , what else do they think is ok ?
Its horrible truly horrible and far worse than it used to be, I long to see all this rubbish disappear and the amount there is just tells me its being added to every single day, I long to see our beautiful countryside but it’s blighted by the rubbish I see. It’s even occurred to me that fly tippers are just opening up the back of their vans in the middle of the night and letting it all fly out as there just seems so much of it everywhere. Maybe a go slow by activists on the A roads and motorways would bring it to the higher powers attention, I would actually agree with that approach.
Why are community service folk not tasked to clearing this up? Are their human rights violated?
Have lived in the so called “Garden of England” (Kent) all my life and am disgusted by the amount of rubbish that has built up on the roadsides, most of which has not been cleared for years. What also distresses me is the twice yearly strimming of verges and central reservations which is done without first attempting to clear the litter, going around the larger items or shredding smaller plastics into thousands of pieces! Even Local Authority and Highways do not remove cones, signage promptly, Police leave blue & white tape in the trees/bushes, breakdown services leave old tyres/bits vehicles lying around, should it not be their responsibility to remove? Setting an example has got to be a start.
I regularly travel by coach from Nottingham on the M1, north to Leeds and south to London, the M50 to the M6 north & also many other motorways. The whole length of these highways are full of litter. There is no clear patch of the MI in its complete length from Nottingham to London for instance. It is mostly stuff thrown out of cars and lorries, some of it by the bin bag load and also other items left by contractors. It is absolutely disgusting and it really gets me down seeing it. The visitors to this country must think we are a filthy nation and currently it seems we are. These roads are in a desperate need of a clean up and more cameras and high fines are needed immediately. (Can someone please design a large scale vacuum to suck up the smaller items?!) We need action now, not just words.