500 tons of chewing gum

It manky stuff alright,

you can’t beat the polo mint for keeping the gob fresh

Originally posted by Frank Taylor

What about making the tax about €2 per packet so that sales, particularly to children, drop to nothing? I know I sound like Scrooge advocating removing childrens’ icecreams but the drawbacks of gum must exceed the benefits many times over.

The sugarless gums have actually been proved to be good for oral heigeine. The chewing gum issue on our streets is just a small example of our attitudes to rubbish in general. Just because of its nature we cannot miss it. Say, for example, if Mars Bar wrappers happened to stick to our pavements they would be covered in them. Putting a tax on chewing gum is not going to solve this problem. It is our overall attitude towards rubbish in general that is going to have to improve.

Firstly, I never heard of any benefit what so ever from plastic bags. Secondly, and interesting that you should mention it, I am beginning to have reservations about the plastic bag levy. I think it has been quite successful up until now, but the other day I was in a shop and handed a plastic bag without being charged for it. The other thing about the plastic bag levy is that we have no indication from many (not all) retailers as to where all the paper for the replacement paper bags is coming from.

No benefit from plastic bags??

i know one.. they help you carry stuff

themook, maybe I did not explain myself properly. What I meant was that there is no benefit in terms of the environment or health. You can obviously carry things with plastic bags, but the handy thing about them is that you can use them again and again.

aye, just being pedantic..

anyway you shouldn’t chew gum.. in the same way it stimulates saliva production, it also releases enzymes in the stomach, not healthy where theres no food in it!

Still there is a hell of a lot less plastic bags floating around (literally)

i am amazed that the chewing gum industry hasn’t come up with chewing gum that is stable for the time scales involved in chewing but degrades over longer time scales. perhaps they haven’t really tried, well, here’s a way to make them try: tax non-degradable gums.

i am amazed that the chewing gum industry hasn’t come up with chewing gum that is stable for the time scales involved in chewing but degrades over longer time scales. perhaps they haven’t really tried, well, here’s a way to make them try: tax non-degradable gums.

Originally posted by phil
What I meant was that there is no benefit in terms of the environment or health.

Round sligo, my birthplace, there’s a particularly strong culture of throwing your rubbish out the car window. The bushes are slowly starting to resemble bushes rather than christmas trees since the plastic bag ban came in. That’s got to be good. Still plenty of coke and lucazade bottles in them bushes though.

I agree that the bag levy has been a resounding success and I’m sure something similar can be applied to gum. I think the main culprits, however, are the new boxes and packets of unwrapped gum. At least with the sticks the conscientious chewer always had a piece of paper or foil to wrap it up in before binning / putting in pocket or bag.

Perhaps we could have designated collection points and we could persuade Cristo to eschew (or perhaps that should be es-chew?) paper for a similar gum wrapping of a particularly offensive Dublin building. Gum as cladding? In the winter all the gum would freeze and fall off and be easily collected.

Any suggestions for a building? I’ll open the bidding with any Jurys Inn of your choice

That is a good idea Burge_Eye. I agree that it is the ones without a wrapper to use in disposal that are the main culprits. I wonder would it help if it was compulsory for companies to use individual wrappers again?

I certainly hope we don’t go down the route some UK towns took recently of erecting boards on lamposts on which to stick your gum. I never heard of anything more disgusting, boards at eye-level laden with knobs of manky gum.

The plastic bag levy was succcessful because of alternatives to the plastic bags but people aren’t necessarily going to give up gum if it’s overpriced. I think a tax that is just sufficient to cover the cost of cleaning is appropriate, and that the money be ringfenced. As much as I’d like to see the stuff got rid of, I don’t think it’s fair the rest of us be penalised for the actions of such ignorant users.

It’s interesting though – has anyone actually ever seen anyone throw or spit gum on the ground? It’s extraordinary how much of the stuff there is down there and yet you never see people do it!

Those are two good points you make Graham. I particularly agree with the one about never seeing anyone throwing it away. I suppose it is because of its sticky nature that there is so much of around. I wonder if it would be possible to survey an area and watch how many pieces are actually spat out on to the ground during a 24 hour period?

I croosed the hay’ penny bridge in Dublin at the weekend, God, it’s destroyed with chewing gum already. Never seen such a concentration of the stuff. I presume this wasn’t there afte its reopening a few years ago

Chewing gum target – as featured on yankodesign

If they dont use bins for litter, what makes you think they’ll use one of them?

In Singapore they ban the stuff. Sounds a bit over the top, but it works. Pavements are free of the gunk and none of it under chairs or tables in restaurants either. The US gov kicked up a fuss about it last year, and as a result they relaxed the rules a bit. You can now buy it, but only for oral hygiene purposes and thus from a dentist! Sounds like a few years back in Ireland when you had to go to the good doc to get a condom!
Was in Cork a few weeks back, and the fancy new Beth Ghali designed pavement on Patrick’s Street is already ruined with the stuff.

Post withdrawn.

Sorry corcaighboy I have to correct you, I was really surprised with how clean the streets were, not just Patrick’s Street, but other areas of the city centre aswell. Only a few pieces of chewing gum on the street, but that is almost expected anywhere.

@Carlow Nationalist wrote:

Make chewing gum less clingy to solve the sticky issue of litter

LATERAL thinking has been applied by a Carlow senator, who has come up with a novel way of tackling the huge costs of cleaning up chewing gum.

Senator Fergal Browne has described Environment Minister Dick Roche’s attempts to get the chewing gum industry to fund an anti-litter campaign as “ineffective”.

Instead he advocates an alternative approach – to put pressure on the industry to make its product less sticky.

Referring to a study that was carried out by some Carlow students last year as part of the Young Scientist competition, Senator Browne highlighted that each year 65,000 pieces of chewing gum were discarded on our footpaths.

“The Irish Government should put pressure on chewing gum companies to make chewing gum less sticky, instead of talking about them funding publicity campaigns which have been proven in the past to be almost totally ineffective,” said Senator Browne.

“A campaign will do nothing to help reduce the huge costs associated with cleaning gum off our streets, costs that a study undertaken in Carlow last year illustrated.

“By reducing the costs of removing chewing gum off our streets local authorities would save millions of euros each year which could be put to good use by helping to clean up towns even further.” According to the Fine Gael senator, the study by the students at St Mary’s Academy also estimated that over half a kilo of gum is discarded on Tullow Street every week. In 2003 Carlow Town Council spent •250,000 on street cleaning.

“Technology now exists to make chewing gum less sticky, as advocated by Tom Kavanagh of the Irish Business Against Litter League, and this must be pushed instead of a futile publicity campaign,” he argued.

“If the Minister truly believes a publicity campaign will have the desired effect he should publish any data available to him that can prove this. He should also explain how he sees litter wardens imposing fines on people who spit out chewing gum will work.”

Majella O’Sullian

© Carlow Nationalist .

I am considering implementing a ban on chewing gum on the buildings I manage due to the effects of discarded gunk.

@Frank Taylor wrote:

Incidentally, O’Connell Street and Henry Street’s new flags are nowhere near as damaged by gum as I would have expected by this stage. Is DCC removing the gum every week or something?

Thats correct, regular cleaning of O’Connell street takes place (the GPO square atleast once a week) and the traders of Henry Mary Street bought a gum removal machine.

Chewing gum ban in Singapore

Roche decides against chewing gum levy
From:ireland.com
Wednesday, 25th January, 2006

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has decided against a levy on chewing gum in favour of a deal with manufacturers, including Wrigleys, to contribute to a public awareness campaign, and to fund research.

The Minister announced details of the public awareness campaign today which he hopes will encourage people to end the practice of dropping chewing gum on the streets.

A pilot programme will include advertising and education campaigns in towns, extra bins and research into combating the problem of gum stuck to pavements.

Mr Roche decided against a levy despite a 2002 report which called for a tax on packets of chewing gum to help street cleaners meet the multi-million costs of clearing the litter up.

“If you put a 100% levy on chewing gum you might actually stop some people chewing but you wouldn’t stop them spitting it out on the streets,” Mr Roche said.

“What you’ve got to do is change attitudes in this particular area, and you’ve got to work with the various partners.

“It has worked elsewhere, and it has worked in areas which are very difficult.

“I’ve no doubt whatsoever that this is a challenge, to actually change public attitudes is the most difficult thing to do, but to change public attitude requires a different approach,” he said.

Mr Roche also told RTE he had held discussions with the distributors of Dublin’s free newspapers and was confident they would take responsibility for the litter problems caused by the publications.

From Ireland . com via eircom

That won’t work hear, will it? A complete ban on the stuff is the only way, which will also never happen here.

@Morlan wrote:

That won’t work hear, will it? A complete ban on the stuff is the only way, which will also never happen here.

Not one for civil liberties are we!

Thank God we still live in a free country. I accept that with with freedom comes responsibilities like disposing of chewing gum and treating public space and fellow citizens with respect. But banning something like chewing gum seems draconian and excessive State intervention in peoples lives.

They are not just not interested. I’d guess that, for some at least, such a campaign would have entirely the opposite effect.

The original levy was to fund cleaning, afaik, but why couldn’t the Govt impose the tax and use it to fund the educational campaign? If the money’s coming from the industry surely there’s a chance that manufacturers will just hike prices to cover it- same result but Dickie isn’t the bad guy.

Or maybe the IRDA got to him again?