Waste Disposal: Parks

(asked on 13th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that there is a sufficient volume of refuse space for use in public parks.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 21st April 2021

Principal Litter Authorities such as local councils or crown authorities are responsible for keeping their relevant land clear of litter and refuse. This includes public parks, national parks and royal parks. It is up to the respective authorities to decide how best to meet this statutory duty.

Litter authorities may choose to install bins in public places and have a duty to make arrangements for the regular emptying and cleansing of any litter bins that they provide or maintain.

On behalf of Defra and MHCLG, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have recently published guidance for local authorities and Business Improvement Districts in England on the provision of litter bins. The Right Bin in the Right Place guidance is available at https://wrap.org.uk/content/binfrastructure-right-bin-right-place

In support of this guidance, the Litter Binfrastructure Grant scheme provided local authorities in England with the opportunity to apply for capital grants of £10,000-£25,000 to support the purchase of new litter bins. The scheme, which is being managed by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and funded by Defra, was open from 17th December 2020 until 10th March 2021. In total 77 applications were received, with £983,000 being awarded to local authorities across 44 grants.

We also continue to campaign to raise awareness of littering issues. Last summer, in response to Covid-19, Defra developed a ‘Respect the Outdoors’ campaign to encourage people to follow the Countryside Code and to highlight the impacts of littering. This was promoted both online and in locations across the country near to urban parks, beaches and national parks. We also supported, and provided funding for, Keep Britain Tidy’s Love Parks campaign, which encouraged people to treat our parks with respect.

Preliminary evaluation of these campaigns indicated that they had a positive influence on the target audience’s intended disposal of PPE litter, with anecdotal reports from local authorities that the intervention resulted in a markedly beneficial outcome.

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