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BBC \/ Elizabeth Baines<\/p>\nElizabeth Baines<\/p>\n
BBC News, Yorkshire<\/p>\n
Reporting fromHeckmondwikeBBC \/ Elizabeth Baines<\/p>\n
Helen Bingham, from Keep Britain Tidy, says litter can affect an area’s economic growth<\/p>\n
A campaign to highlight the impact of “careful littering” will be trialled in a West Yorkshire town.<\/p>\n
According to Keep Britain Tidy, “careful littering” involves people leaving disposable cups, newspapers and other items placed on benches or walls, rather than throwing them on the ground.<\/p>\n
The charity has chosen to focus on the issue in Heckmondwike as part of its efforts to tackle the problem.<\/p>\n
Pam Lonsdale, a volunteer with Keep Hecky Tidy, said: “Getting rid of litter brings back a sense of pride, if there is litter everywhere it shows that people do not care but if we can make the town look better it attracts people here.”<\/p>\n
Ms Lonsdale, 60, has been volunteering with the group for the past four years and regularly takes part in litter picks in the town.<\/p>\n
“I think it is great that we are the catalyst for something that is going to go nationwide,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It absolutely frustrates me when there is litter, it is just pure laziness.<\/p>\n
“Some of the things we have found you really do not want to know about.”<\/p>\n
According to Keep Britain Tidy, one in four people in Heckmondwike admit to “careful littering”.<\/p>\n
The organisation’s work in the town will help to shape its litter reduction efforts across the UK, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
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Keep Britain Tidy<\/p>\n
Living statues leaving drinks containers on benches are used to highlight the issue<\/p>\n
The campaign will see new signs placed across the town and litter picking events held in partnership with schools and businesses.<\/p>\n
A series of images showing living statues leaving coffee cups, sandwich wrappers and newspapers have also been commissioned by the organisation to highlight the issue.<\/p>\n
“This is about the kind of littering that everybody will see but many do not even think of as littering, like a coffee cup placed on a step,” said Helen Bingham, from Keep Britain Tidy.<\/p>\n
“They are not mindlessly throwing but it is still littering, it makes a place look unloved and uncared for.<\/p>\n
“It increases fear of crime and it impacts economic growth because people do not want to invest in somewhere that looks like no one cares.”<\/p>\n
She said the organisation would monitor attitudes to the campaign in the town in order to “develop a blueprint and shift the dial on littering”.<\/p>\n
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/374cae60-7150-11f0-b40d-2f2a77d02753.jpg.webp.webp\")
BBC \/ Elizabeth Baines<\/p>\n
Campaigners want to stop people leaving cans, newspapers, cups and other items on benches<\/p>\n
Campaigners said education was key to tackling the issue.<\/p>\n
Liz Gautry, founder of Keep Hecky Tidy, said volunteers often saw cans “popped on top” of walls.<\/p>\n
“They get blown off, it is really important people understand it is all littering, whether you are throwing it or leaving it somewhere”, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Baines BBC News, Yorkshire Reporting fromHeckmondwikeBBC \/ Elizabeth Baines Helen Bingham, from Keep Britain Tidy, says litter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-55675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}