Fast Facts
Here you can find some key facts and figures for use as background material.
Background information
- Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) is one of Scotland's leading environmental charities, administering anti-litter and waste awareness campaigns in Scotland. Its anti-litter campaigns have been run under the slogan of Keep Scotland Tidy for nearly forty years.
- The cost of clearing litter from public land is estimated by Keep Scotland Beautiful to be £100million a year.
- KSB and local authorities approach littering in three ways, education, service provision and enforcement.
The Environmental Protection Act and litter
- The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA) makes duty bodies responsible for keeping their land clear of litter and refuse. It also gives both local authorities and members of the public rights to take legal action to get areas cleaned up.
- Litter is defined in the EPA as 'anything which is thrown down, dropped or deposited and left that causes defacement, in a public place'. Litter is waste in the wrong place.
- Authorised local authority officers or a police constable can issue fixed penalty notices for littering. The EPA allows people suspected of having committed an offence under the Act to be issued with a fixed penalty notice as an alternative to criminal prosecution
Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN)
- Littering is a criminal offence yet 46% of people, from all age groups, admit to the habit.
- The FPN for littering is £50, but if this isn't paid it can be taken to court and a higher fine issued - up to £2,000.
- 155 uniformed local authority and the police officers issued 178 fixed penalty notices for littering on Tuesday 3rd June 2008 - the first Litter Day of Action.
- 252 uniformed local authority and police officers issues 198 fixed penalty notices for littering on Tuesday 12th May 2009.
- **In the period 08/09 a total of 7,537 fixed penalty notices were issued by 20 Scottish local authorities. 4,563 (60%) of these notices were paid within the 14 days allowed, and of those not paid, 1,275 resulted in enforcement through the Sheriff Court.
- **17 of the 27 local authorities who responded confirmed numbers of complaints received about litter - with the total number of complaints being 4,218
- 235 uniformed local authority and police officers issued 313 fixed penalty notices for littering on Thursday 10th June 2010.
- **The information was taken from a Keep Scotland Beautiful survey carried out every two years.