Streets Ahead
Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...and experience clean streets, beaches and promenades, shimmering seas and the occasional squawk of a seagull.
Streets Ahead was Hubbub’s answer to Brighton & Hove City Council’s request to stem the wave of litter in this coastal resort, and comprised an anti-littering campaign for beaches, high streets, and residential areas.
The campaign aimed to:
Install a sense of community pride in residents, businesses, and community groups, inspiring them to act together against litter, creating a legacy lasting beyond Hubbub’s involvement.
Improve the Council’s reputation as a council actively reducing litter, by generating a buzz and positive PR for Brighton & Hove City Council and its Cityclean team.
Build Cityclean’s ability to run engaging litter and fly-tipping reduction campaign
Seaside insights
To gain an understanding of littering behaviours in Brighton & Hove, Hubbub and the council conducted 300+ street interviews, observed over 1000+ people at six locations and received 1500+ responses to an online survey.
8 out of 10 Brighton residents said they were fed up with the amount of litter in Brighton & Hove
88% of people thought there should be stricter fines for those who litter
93% think litter ruins communities and neighbourhoods
4 out of 10 people were observed littering rather than binning their waste
Of all littering behaviour observed, three quarters littered cigarette butts
Men were slightly more likely to litter than women
Littering was most prevalent among the 25 to 34 age group
Our approach
There were two key phases to the Streets Ahead campaign:
Pre-campaign roll out
A series of engagement activities with members of the local community to increase awareness of Streets Ahead campaign. These included:
Working with Brighton & Hove City Council staff to develop an anti-litter brand that the team could implement in the future, to create long lasting impact
Runing two roundtable events to engage with local businesses and community groups, providing opportunities for them to participate in and promote the campaign
An online and print PR and social media campaign
These engagement activities culminated with the UK’s first ever silent disco beach clean, run in collaboration with Pier2Pier Beach Clean and the Council to launch Streets Ahead
Campaign roll out
11 interventions were implemented across the coastal resort to reduce litter on the streets and beaches of Brighton & Hove. These applied behaviour change principles and techniques, such as fun theory and competition, to draw attention and nudge people to bin their litter. The interventions included:
Bin and stair vinyls
An art installation
An ice-cream trash converting cart
Litter lifeguards
Voting bins
A community gallery
Grate art
Images showing the campaign in action.
The impact
2,000+ people engaged in activities
249 people & partners promoted the campaign including Komedia Brighton, Juice 107.2, Cool Brighton, i360, Palace Pier, Brighton Gin, Cllr Warren Morgan and Cllr Emma Daniel
11 community groups and 26 businesses participated in the campaign
20 pieces of press coverage with a reach of 3.7 million
Cityclean staff delivered 3 more anti-littering activities in collaboration with local partners since our Streets Ahead project.
Get involved
In need of more binspiration? Check out the Big Ballot Bin for general litter here and the OG Ballot Bin for cigarette litter too
Check out these other two campaigns to see how different combination of interventions have successfully reduced litter in coastal and riverside locations:
