Liverpool must radically rethink litter approach, mayor says

Mayor Joanne Anderson said Liverpool needed "to take significant steps towards becoming a zero-waste city"

Liverpool is to "radically rethink" its approach to litter after a charity found it had three times more than the national average, its mayor has said.

Keep Britain Tidy found high levels of discarded waste across 300 sites in an inspection in January.

Liverpool City Council is to implement a five-part plan, which includes a focus on education and enforcement.

Mayor Joanne Anderson said Liverpool needed "to take significant steps towards becoming a zero-waste city".

The new scheme, which will see the charity work alongside the council to deliver the environmental programme, will look at littering complaint responses, business waste, targeted campaigns, community action and enforcement.

The authority said it spent £9.5m annually on cleaning up litter and had invested in CCTV to identify and prosecute fly-tippers.

A spokesman said the scheme would also address issues with black bag waste, along with improving litter bins in the city's parks.

'Blighted by litter'

Ms Anderson said Liverpool needed to have a "radical rethink of how we store, collect and recycle waste".

She added that the council would work with schools, community groups and businesses.

Councillor Abdul Qadir, who commissioned the charity study, said the authority was making "big strides" in dealing with the city's "littering issue".

He said the council "cannot keep Liverpool tidy and clean on its own" and everyone "had a role to play".

Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said "no-one wants to live somewhere blighted by litter".

"We are delighted to be working with Liverpool City Council to help it realise its ambition for a clean city," she said.

"Litter pollution impacts on the environment in so many ways, but it also has economic consequences and increases the fear of crime, so it is important that councils around the country follow Liverpool's lead in making it a priority."

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