It’ll take more than graphics to beat the litter problem

Last week you posed the question – in light of Keep Britain Tidy naming KFC and McDonald’s as some of the brands that together make up a quarter of our litter, despite on-pack graphics and messaging – what can design do to alleviate the problem? (Voxpop, DW 22 January).

Littering is a mindset problem that on-pack graphics alone can only do so much to correct. We need to make it socially unacceptable to throw rubbish on to the streets.

Offenders must appreciate the link between dropping litter and the cost of clearing it up, and realise that litter is never thrown ‘away’ – it’s just moved elsewhere.

This ‘redistribution’ results in a £500m annual bill for street cleaning and litter clearance alone. Short of having limited-edition Banksy collectable chip paper, the key to change from our side is innovation – new ways of presenting food that consumers would be comfortable to accept.

Edible forks, perhaps… or maybe just more bins?

David Harding-Brown, Production director, Vibrandt, by e-mail