Tidy Roadsides

Tackling roadside litter in Glasgow and Cardiff, with the support of scientific litter mapping

When did you last speak to someone about roadside litter at a party? Probably never is the honest answer.  

Rubbish on our roadsides is hardly the most interesting or sexy topic of conversation even for bin-nerds, but it is a big problem; as well as being an eyesore and harming our environment it’s also expensive and difficult to clear up.  

Tidy Roadsides tackled roadside litter in Glasgow and Cardiff, with the support of scientific litter mapping by innovative tech company Ellipsis Earth.

Tidy Roadsides ould help councils, agencies and those tackling roadside litter to focus efforts on litter hotspots, saving time and money and many of the assets used in this campaign can be used for free.

Let’s take the scenic route

Most drivers will tell you roadside litter doesn’t do much to enhance the scenery or landscape. If anything, it kind of takes the edge off. The effect it has on our environment and wildlife is much less visible though.  

Small animals get stuck in packaging, plastic breaks down into microplastics, and because roadsides are hard to clear, rubbish gets trapped for a long time. Eventually, like so much rubbish it may eventually blow into a river or waterway, where it is likely to join the 80% of all ocean plastics coming from land (Eunomia, 2016).  

Ellipsis Earth found that on average a piece of rubbish could have been dropped every 3 seconds on the main roads we’re targeting in Glasgow and Cardiff. 

With most common items in the surveyed area being: 

Is roadside litter driving you mad?

Our research on roadside litter shows:  

1. It’s harder to tackle than other littering:  It’s more anonymous than on high streets, and difficult to pick up due to traffic and vegetation.  

2. Slow-speed locations are hotspots: Rubbish is common at places where drivers slow down, e.g. at junctions, slip roads, traffic lights and roundabouts. In Cardiff, 20% of rubbish was concentrated at junctions, on just 2% of land. Junctions showed a 25 times higher rate of littering than open road verges, particularly on A roads. 

3. It’s not always deliberate:  As with lots of other litter, there’s some accidental or ‘tidy littering’ when people park, e.g., wind blowing packaging from car doors, or overflowing bins.   

4. For some people tidy cars > tidy roadsides:  Our Big Boys Don’t Litter research (2021) shows some young men chuck food and drink packaging to keep their cars clean. 

5. Littered items might not be what you think: As the survey found, paper litter, cigarette butts and plastic fragments (often broken down from food and drink packaging) are the top three types of roadside litter.

   In Cardiff, half of all roadside litter was paper-based: napkins, receipts and paper packaging. Though paper is thought to be less environmentally harmful, litter often breeds more litter,  its presence can attract more litter and is still costly to clean up.   

So, what did we do?

First of all, we brought together a coalition of local partners committed to reducing litter in their area and develop the campaign with.  

In Glasgow, the campaign focused on Paisley Road West and Dunbarton Road. Hubbub are worked with Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver the campaign, in collaboration with Glasgow City Council.  

In Cardiff, Tidy Roadsides focused on major roundabouts and arterial main roads such as Culverhouse Cross and the M4 slip roads. We worked with Keep Wales Tidy to deliver the campaign, in collaboration with the Welsh Government, Cardiff City Council, Vale of Glamorgan Council, Welcome Break and Fidum Property Management Ltd. 

We made binning rubbish easier by: 

• Trialled car-friendly bins with larger apertures for drivers stopping for a break, at service stations and retail parks 

• Gave existing bins a glow up with colourful vinyl to make them bolder and easier to find. 

To make people more willing to bin, we focused on normalising positive behaviour, rather than negative  an overarching message of ‘keep it ‘til you bin it’ – and engage people through different avenues: 

• Installing multiple road signs, billboard ads and lamppost banners around litter hotspots 

• Running a social media campaign targeted at local drivers 

• Playing a catchy radio ad on Heart Radio Glasgow and South Wales 

• Quizzing drivers how frequently rubbish is dropped on our roads to raise awareness of the issue – see their reactions here  

• We set up a #TidyRoadsides pop-up pit stop and asked people at car parks to do a two-minute tidy of their cars to help them clean.  

Images showing the campaign in action.

What difference did we make

8 weeks after the campaign, Ellipsis Earth measured litter levels again and found: 

In Glasgow: 

• Creating eye-catching bins around litter hotspots reduced litter by 45% within 20 metres of the bins, versus only 8% in non-hotspot locations. When a sign was also placed alongside the bin, this reduced litter by 58%. 

• The combination of signage and bins together boosts the performances of each by 25%. 

• Overall, data-driven interventions were 4-5 times more effective than untargeted interventions. 

In Cardiff: 

• The combination of billboards, signage and eye-catching bins together reduced littering by 23% at areas around motorway services in Junction 34 on M4, South Wales. 

• In contrast, putting isolated signage didn’t make much difference to roadside littering. 

Navigating a better route to tackling roadside litter

Thanks to Ellipsis Earth, we have a roadmap (sorry) of how to create effective interventions and target specific hotspot locations.  We have combined these insights and learnings into four recommendations to help local authorities and businesses to effectively tackle roadside litter:  

1. Focus resources at slow-speed locations  

Interventions not placed in litter hotspots make little difference, wasting valuable resources – time and effort. Focus on junctions, roundabouts and slip roads to make the most of your budget. 

2. Place the right bin at the right moment 

Provide eye-catching bins where drivers stop, ensuring they are visible and easy to access – for example with large apertures. Encourage binning rubbish before getting on the road again.   

3. Combine bins and signage for a bigger impact  

Combining bins and signs together at hotspots help them work 25% better than either on their own.  

4. Work collaboratively 

Roadside litter knows no boundaries. Highway agencies, councils, and businesses could create bigger impact by working together on consistent messaging at litter hotspots and providing bins where people consume food and drink. 

Want to get in gear?

• Want more? Check out our previous roadside litter campaign here

• Interested in rolling out this campaign in your area? Download the Tidy Roadsides campaign assets here.