Litter and flytipping: scale and cost

7 Annex

7.1 Indirect Costs Comparison

Indirect Cause of Litter	Previous cost	Updated cost
Litter as a Casual Factor in Crime	Between £225,000 and £22.5 million	Between £393,392 and £39,339,200
The impacts of Litter on Mental Wellbeing	Cost of Antidepressants: £1.57 million Poor Mental Health: £53 million	Cost of Antidepressants: £2.1 million Poor Mental Health: £56.7 million
Indirect Costs of Drug-related Litter	NA	NA
Cost of Litter-related Injuries	NA	NA
Cost of Injuries to Duty Body Staff	NA	NA
Costs of Litter-related Road Traffic Accidents	Between £1.03m to £4.8 million	Between £646,400 to £5.3 million
Costs to Repair Punctures Caused by Litter	£1 million	£1 million
Indirect Costs of Litter to the Rail Networks	Between £156 and £54,100.	Unable to replicate
Litter-related Costs of Vermin: Rats	Cost of Damage: £1 million Cost of Control: Between £2,900 and £340,000	Cost of Damage: £5.2 million Cost of Control: Between £5,000 and £500,000.
Litter-related Costs of Vermin: Pigeons	Between £1,680 and £168,000	Between £1,880 and £188,000
Indirect Costs to Business	£500,000	Unable to replicate
Litter as a Cause of Wildfires	Between £66,000 and £6.6million	Between £84,349 and £8,434,854
Cost of Dealing with Impacts of Litter on Wildlife and Livestock	£315,000	£92,400
Costs of Litter-related Flooding	NA	NA
Effects of Litter on House Prices	£100 million	£110 million
Impacts of Litter on Tourism	NA	NA

7.2 Primary Data Availability across Local Authorities, Public and Private Bodies

The following table shows the primary data availability across LAs, Public and Private Bodies for the cost, scale and composition of litter. A red-amber-green scale has been used as follows:

• Red / “Not Available”: No primary data collected (or unknown)
• Amber / “Limited”: At least one qualitative data point, or anecdotal evidence, collected through primary research for this category
• Green / “Available”: At least one quantitative data point collected through primary research for this category

Table 7‑1: Primary data availability across local authorities, public and private bodies

		Litter
		Cost	Scale	Composition
Local authorities
Urban		Available	Available	Not Available
Mixed		Limited	Available	Not Available
Rural		Limited	Available	Not Available
Private and other public bodies
Food	Take away and fast food	Available	Not Available	Not Available
Nature based attractions	National parks	Available	Available	Limited
	Holiday parks	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Country parks	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Woodlands	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Farmlands	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available
	The Crown Estate	Not Available	Available	Available
Night-time economy	Nightclubs	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Pubs and bars	Available	Not Available	Not Available
Retail/ commercial	Supermarkets	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Shopping malls/ retail parks	Available	Available	Available
	Business parks	Available	Not Available	Not Available
Transport hubs	Ports	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Train and coach stations	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Airport	Available	Not Available	Not Available
Transport infrastructure	Railways	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Roads	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Waterways	Available	Available	Available
Education facilities	Universities	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Primary Schools	Available	Not Available	Limited
	Secondary Schools	Available	Not Available	Limited
Indoor recreation	Cinemas	Available	Available	Available
	Theatres	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Aquariums & zoos	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Museums & historical sites	Available	Not Available	Not Available
Outdoor recreation	Stadium	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Sports grounds	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Golf courses	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Car parks	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Theme parks	Available	Not Available	Not Available
	Music Festivals	Not Available	Not Available	Not Available

7.3 Public and Private Bodies - Categories, Sub-categories and Specific Types of Organisations

Table 7‑2: Public and private bodies - categories, sub-categories and specific types of organisations

Category (9)	Sub-category (31)	Specific type (56)
Food	Take away and fast food	High footfall
		Rural setting
		Outdoor seating
		Drive through/collection
Nature based attractions	National parks	Near city
		Further away
	Country parks	Facilities
		No facilities
		Charges
		No charge
	Woodlands	Near city
		Further away
	Farmlands	National Farmers Union
		Scottish Land and Estates
	The Crown Estate	The Crown Estate
	Tourist attractions	One urban
		One not
Night-time economy	Nightclubs	Smoking area
		Not smoking area
	Pubs	Bar
		Pub
Retail/commercial	Supermarkets	Urban
		rural setting
	Shopping malls/retail	Mall
		Retail Park
	Business parks	Urban
		Rural
Transport hubs	Ports	Urban
		Rural
	Train stations	Urban
		Rural
	Airport	Glasgow
		Highland and Island Airports
		Edinburgh
Transport infrastructure	Railways	One company
	Roads	One company
	Waterways	One company
Education facilities	Universities	Campus university
		City university
	Schools	Primary state
		Primary private
		Secondary state
		Secondary private
		Nursery
Indoor recreation	Cinemas	Landlord - leisure park
		Non-landlord
	Theatres	Independent
		Chain
	Tourist sites	Urban
		Rural
Outdoor recreation	Stadium	One
	Sports grounds	One
	Golf clubs	One
	Car parks	One
	Theme parks	One
	Festivals	One

7.4 Public and Private Bodies – Survey Questionnaire

The full questionnaire was sent in Excel format. The file contained the following sheets:

• Introduction: Containing a description of the study and the survey and contact details of the research team.
• Contact Information: To allow respondents to provide their contact details.
• Scale & Cost of Lit. & Flytip.: Containing questions related to the scale and cost of the services associated with litter and flytipping, as well as composition. Structured by data, people, education, enforcement, equipment, disposal and other.
• Impact of COVID-19: Containing questions relating to changes in littering and flytipping as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scale & Cost of Litter & Flytipping Questions

Impact of COVID-19

7.5 Public and Private Bodies - Interview Guide

Question 1:

Does your organisation experience any issues with litter around your premises/the premises that you are responsible for?

For note, the definition of litter to be used here is any rubbish (including, but not limited to, packaging, cigarette butts, food, chewing gum, etc.) found in any outside place that is not designed or intended to specifically gather rubbish (i.e., not a bin). This excludes any waste products left within the bounds of an organisation ’s outdoor premises that can be reasonably expected to be gathered as part of said organisation ’s daily operations. For example, food packaging left on a table in the seating area of a café would not count as litter.

Expected responses and suggested approach:

• Yes – please move on to question 2
• No – ask them if there is any reason for this (e.g., the Council cleans any potential litter regularly enough to mitigate any issues experienced by the organisation). End conversation

Question 2:

Does your organisation clean up this litter? Either directly using employee time or through an additional, purchased service?

Expected responses and suggested approach:

• Yes, employees – please move on to question 3
• Yes, paid service – please move on to question 5
• No – Thank them and end the call

Question 3:

Do you know how much time your employees spend, per week or per day, cleaning up this litter?

Expected responses and suggested approach:

• Yes, quantitative description of number of hours (e.g., “about 15 minutes a day”) spent cleaning up litter – please move on to question 7
• Yes, percentage of a shift (e.g., “about 5% per shift”) – please move on to question 4
• No – please move on to question 6

Question 4:

How long is a typical shift?

Expected responses:

• Qualitative figure for length of a shift (e.g., “8 hours”) – please move on to question 6

Question 5:

How much does this service cost you? Does this service perform any other tasks (e.g., other cleaning) for you? As a percentage, what proportion of the time this service spends with you each week do you think is spent cleaning up litter?

Expected responses and suggested approach:

• Qualitative responses to the above questions – please move on to question 6

Question 6:

Are you able to provide any further details regarding the litter that you clean up? For example, what sort of litter it is or how much of it there is?

Expected responses and suggested approach:

• Yes – please ask for an email address to send follow on questions
• No – Thank them and end the call

7.6 Public and Private Bodies – Data Points Collected from Stakeholder Sub-groups on the Direct Cost of Littering

7.6.1 Food

Table 7‑3: Data point(s) collected from take away restaurants and fast-food chains on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	None	0	0
2	1 person, 5 minutes per day	0.08	£250
3	1 person, 5 minutes per day	0.08	£250
4	1 person, 2-3 hours per day	2.50	£7,492

7.6.2 Nature Based Attractions

Table 7‑4:Data point(s) collected from National Parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	In summer, 3 staff spend 21 hours a week litter picking. In the winter, this falls to 1 member of staff	6	£17,980

Table 7‑5: Data point(s) collected from holiday parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	1 person, 30 minutes per day	0.5	£1,498

Table 7‑6: Data point(s) collected from country parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	1.5 people, 8 hours per day	12	£35,960

Table 7‑7: Data point(s) collected from entity responsible for woodlands on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	We would spend around £50-60K pa for our estate in Scotland for contractor costs. This does not account for staff time in managing those contracts or any volunteer time	N/A	£60,000

Table 7‑8: Data point(s) collected for the Crown Estate on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Cleared while passing on route to other works within the Estates	N/A	N/A
2	Litter is generally collected while on other duties e.g., patrolling trails. However, we have a list of named sites that get further checked annually specifically for litter/flytipping	N/A	N/A
3	Crown Estate Scotland work with other stakeholders to manage the clear up, including Police Scotland, the Local Authorities and the tenant farmers	N/A	N/A

Data point(s) collected: When contacted, Crown Estate Scotland could not provide any quantitative data on the cost of clearing litter on the four landed estates they are responsible for, as it is not data they collect. However, they did provide the following qualitative responses for three of their estates on clearing litter from their premises shown in Table 7‑8.

7.6.3 Night-time Economy

Table 7‑9: Data point(s) collected for pubs on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	1 person, 5-10 minutes a day	0.13	£375

Table 7‑10: Data point(s) collected for night clubs on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	10-20 minutes per day when open. Open 3 times a week, and 2 times a month have extra days	0.25	£370

7.6.4 Retail/Commercial

Data points were collected for supermarkets located in both rural (four responses) and urban areas (two responses). Of the rural supermarkets, three said litter was not an issue and that they do not spend time clearing it. One said that litter is an issue and that their cleaners spend around 20 minutes a day. Of the urban supermarkets, one said there was a lot of litter but that they were well-serviced by the council and so did not spend any time clearing litter. The other said litter is an issue and that they spend 20 minutes every day picking. The central estimate used for the time spent clearing litter was 10 minutes a day.

Table 7‑11: Data point(s) collected for supermarkets on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Litter is not an issue, don't spend any time clearing	0	£0
2	Litter is not an issue, don't spend any time clearing	0	£0
3	Litter is not an issue, don't spend any time clearing	0	£0
4	Litter is an issue – they have schools nearby and lots of litter, their cleaners do some clearing when they have time, maybe 20 minutes every morning	0.33	£999
5	Litter is a big issue – spend 20 minutes a day picking it up	0.33	£999
6	There is a lot of litter, but they are central and well-serviced by the council, council litter pickers cover the area so they don't do any clearing	0	£0

When contacting shopping malls and retail parks, most of these responded that they had their own dedicated cleaning service to deal with litter. One data point was collected for a shopping mall in Glasgow, who said that their whole cleaning contract, which included all cleaning duties, amounted to £400,000 and that approximately 45% of this was for litter clearing.

Table 7‑12: Data point(s) collected for shopping malls and retail parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Whole cleaning contract is £400,000, approx. 45% of that is for litter clearing	N/A	£180,000

Table 7‑13: Data point(s) collected for business parks on the time spent clearing litter (From a business park in Aberdeen)

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Litter is a massive issue, winds blow in litter, and due to bins not secured, lots of litter gets blown into the general area. Facility manager spends approximately 3 hours a week clearing	0.43	£1,284

7.6.5 Transport Hubs

Data points were collected for two urban ports and two rural ports. Two of the responses contained quantitative data – one urban port said they spend approximately £200 annually to clear up litter, and one rural port said internal staff spend around 30 minutes a day collecting waste and litter blown in.

Table 7‑14: Data point(s) collected for ports on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	£200 annually	N/A	£200
2	30 minutes a day	0.5	£1,498

An average was then calculated based on the two quantitative responses, equating to £849 annually.

No quantitative data was able to be collected from train and coach stations. However, two qualitative responses were received from a train station and a coach station.

Table 7‑15: Data point(s) collected for train and coach stations on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
Train station	All waste generated on site was from retailers, train operators and is managed according to its type, and therefore no data was available	N/A	N/A
Coach station	Do not collect information on litter in isolation. The litter picked up by cleaning staff who patrol the bus station is not usually significant	N/A	N/A

No reliable secondary data was found.

One data point was collected for one of the major commercial airports in Scotland, who reported that they had two members of staff who would spend 2 days a week litter picking.

Table 7‑16: Data point(s) collected for airports on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Two members of staff, 2 days a week litter picking	4.6	£13,699

7.6.6 Transport Infrastructure

Cost data was collected from Scottish Canals through their survey response, who reported the following:

Table 7‑17: Data point(s) collected for waterways on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	150 hours a week spent clearing litter and flytipped items. Hourly rate of £20. Equipment = £5,000 per annum, other relevant costs equal to £26,331.14 per annum	21.4	£187,760

Data point(s) collected: No primary data was able to be collected on the cost of littering on roads. However, secondary data was collected – though the data found is from 10 years ago. In 2012, Zero Waste Scotland reported that Amey spend over 14,000 hours collecting rubbish each year from potentially dangerous, high speed motorway verges, through their Scottish Trunk Roads Unit (STRU) contract.^[113] This amounts to £114,940 in the cost of labour time.

Data point(s) collected: No primary data was able to be collected on the cost of littering on railways. However, secondary data was collected. Network Rail Scotland report that they remove over 1,000 tonnes of rubbish from Scotland’s Railways each year.^[114]

7.6.7 Education Facilities

Data points were collected for two primary schools – one primary state school and one primary private school. The data is shown in Table 7‑18.

Table 7‑18: Data point(s) collected for primary schools on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Spend an average of 20 to 30 minutes per day to pick up litter and to empty bins	0.4	£1,249
2	No litter problem as no packaged food or drinks	0	£0

The first response was used as it was deemed more representative of most primary schools. This was chosen as it was reported by a state school, and the majority of primary schools are state schools rather than private schools (94% of school students in Scotland go to state schools^[115]). Furthermore, the second response was from a private school who serve their students all food, hence the lack of litter – this is likely to be the case for a minority of schools.

One data point was collected for one secondary state school, show in Table 7‑19.

Table 7‑19: Data point(s) collected for secondary schools on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Experience litter and spend 2 to 3 hours a day collecting it	2.50	£7,492

Data points were collected for two major Scottish universities and are shown in Table 7‑20.

Table 7‑20: Data point(s) collected for universities on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	For littering, 3.5 FTE Outside Cleaners are employed who each work 35 hours a week (plus 0.5 FTE at a subsidiary campus). Includes sweeping of streets and roads owned by University, emptying of all litter bins. For flytipping, employ the service of an outside contractor to clear this waste. A very rough total figure is £100k per annum, with most of this staff time to clear litter	N/A	£100,000 (then adjusted downwards by 50% to £50,000 - see below)
2	Estimates time 15 hours per week per campus, 2 campuses total	4.3	£12,843

7.6.8 Indoor Recreation

Data points were collected for two cinemas, one located in a leisure park with a property owner, who takes on cleaning responsibilities, and one with no property owner. The data for the cinema with no property owner is shown in Table 7‑21.

Table 7‑21: Data point(s) collected for cinemas on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Spend a maximum of 20 minutes a day sweeping – very little litter outside, most people leave their litter in the cinema screens	0.33	£1,209

Data points were collected for two theatres – one independent theatre and one chain theatre (which gave data for the 3 theatres they managed, two of which are large). We were informed by the independent theatre they hold two to three shows every two weeks, whilst it was assumed the chain theatre runs a show almost every day. Data collected is shown in Table 7‑22.

Table 7‑22: Data point(s) collected for theatres on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Staff spend 5 to 10 minutes after every show to clear litter	0.13	£67
2	260hrs per week cleaning two theatres, approximately 5% of which is to clean litter outside	1.86	£5,565 for two theatres £2,782.50 for one

One data point was collected from an aquarium who provided the response shown in Table 7‑23 on the time spent clearing litter.

Table 7‑23: Data point(s) collected for aquariums and zoos on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	1 person, 2 hours per day (7 days/week)	2	£5,993

One data point was collected from a museum whose response is shown in Table 7‑24.

Table 7‑24: Data point(s) collected for museums and historical sites on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Spend 5 minutes a day collecting litter	0.08	£250

7.6.9 Outdoor Recreation

Data point(s) collected: No primary data was able to be collected on the cost of littering at stadiums. However, secondary data was collected. Online Gambling submitted an FOI request to the UK government to find out about wastage at football stadiums. In their study, they found that Premier League clubs spend a combined £599,518 on cleaning up over the course of one full season (per year).^[116]

One data point was collected from a sports ground on the cost of clearing litter, shown in Table 7‑25.

Table 7‑25: Data point(s) collected for sports grounds on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	Spending includes £270 a week on staff, £500 on equipment and £800 a year on skips	N/A	£15,379

Data point(s) collected: Data was collected for three different golf courses, all said they had no issues with litter and spent no time clearing it. As a result, it was assumed that golf courses do not spend money clearing up litter.

One data point was collected from a car park in Edinburgh on the cost of clearing litter. Their response is shown in Table 7‑26.

Table 7‑26: Data point(s) collected for car parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	One hour per week	0.14	£428

One data point was collected from a Scottish theme park on the cost of clearing litter. This can be seen in Table 7‑27.

Table 7‑27: Data point(s) collected for theme parks on the time spent clearing litter

	Response	Hrs/day cleaning	Annual cost (£/yr)
1	£3,000 per year	N/A	£3,000

Data point(s) collected: It was not possible to obtain data on the cost of addressing litter at music festivals through primary research (calls or emails). As a result, the figure that has been used is scaled from estimates gathered through secondary research.

It has been reported that in 2017, it cost Glastonbury Festival £785,000 to clean-up and remove rubbish from the site.^[117]