A seaside town in western Ireland is trying to ban the sale of chewing gum in order to help clean up the town streets.
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The town of Westport, winner of the national Tidy Town award last year, is concerned about the amount of discarded gum that litters its streets. Westport missed out on the Tidy Town award by two points this year.
“While litter is a big problem for other towns, it has been well controlled in Westport, thanks to the work of the Tidy Town committee and the town council,” said Dr. Oliver Whyte, president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce.
“But our survey has highlighted the huge amounts of chewing gum and cigarette butts that are defacing the town’s streets and footpaths,” he added.
Dropping chewing gum is a breach of the Litter Act, which according to Dr Whyte, is “actively enforced by the town council”. The Chamber of Commerce hopes to encourage local retailers to stop selling chewing gum, in the hope that this will help deal with the problem of dropped gum.
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By GlobalDataAlthough Bridie Moran, chairperson of the Westport Tidy Towns Committee, agrees with the suggested ban, she admits it would be difficult to impose.
Dr Whyte and the Westport Chamber of Commerce are hoping that by discussing the issue with the Ireland Chambers of Commerce, they might see the ban extended to other towns. Dr Whyte hopes that chewing gum manufacturers might then be encouraged to produce a gum that would dissolve after a certain amount of chewing.
