Something to chew on...
August 1st 2004

Chewing gum litter is a problem and InnoCleaning Concepts believes it has the solution Chewing gum is litter. Unimaginable quantities of chewing gum are consumed world-wide every year. In the UK up to three-quarters of the population are believed to be regular gum-chewers, with 980 million packs of gum bought every year. Out of which three and a half billion pieces of gum are disposed of every day, mostly in a thoughtless way. The cost of removal is thought to be in excess of 150 million per year. It is only the work of a moment to place the gum into a small piece of paper (the gum wrapper is ideal for this purpose) and put this package into a litterbin. But while this is apparently too much work for most people, in the meantime the gum has to be dealt with, on the ground. Discarded chewing gum sticks firmly to pavements, it does not degrade over time and it is difficult to remove. And it is getting worse. It has been estimated that at any one time Oxford Street in London is littered with up to 300 000 pieces of gum. According to a Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology review in Autumn 2003, sales of chewing gum have been increasing steadily. Wrigleys, which owns many of the chewing gum brands, has seen its sales grow by over a third in the US and the UK since 1998. Chewing gum is the fastest growing part of the confectionery business over the last 5 years. A national survey commissioned by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reported in 2002 that chewing gum was the major source of staining on pavements. The greatest problems are around facilities such as schools, cinemas, and swimming pools. Places that are frequented by young people. Aside from imposing 50 fines for gum litter (it never stopped ordinary litter did it?), Defra proposes that in line with the polluter pays principle, manufacturers somehow contribute to managing the problem. Perhaps by making the gum non-sticky, although this would compromise the commercial properties of the product such as flavour retention, elasticity, and such. Another proposal is to restrict sales of chewing gum in blighted areas. Although this may not really have much of an effect in practice, as gum is not always disposed of in the same area it was bought from. A total ban would have an effect however, and they did this in Singapore, where there was a complete ban for 10 years (1992-2002), which was only partially lifted in 2003 and it is now available in chemists shops only where they have to take the customers name, just as for a controlled substance. But in all honesty, although Singapore is said to be a cleaner, safer place, they do have lets just say, a large, non-uniformed police force who are also ready to impose 1000 dollar fines for eating, drinking or smoking on the underground system as well. We do not have such a culture in this country and if theres not the political will to ban smoking; there won't be one to ban chewing gum either. So until a levy is imposed on the chewing gum manufacturers to pay for cleaning it up from the streets (the Irish government proposes just such an introduction, the equivalent of 7p per pack) it leaves the local authorities, who have a legal duty to clear litter from public places, to do the job for them. Ultimately, that means you and me. A major clean up is more costly and time-consuming than repeat cleans, and the recommendation is every three to twelve months in order to discourage copycat offenders. There are of course various methods of dealing with discarded chewing gum: chemical reaction; freezing; detergents combined with masses of hot water; and finally, detergents with steam. The first method requires each piece of gum to be treated individually and can be a long and tiresome process while the chemicals react with the binding agents within the gum. This method is obviously not practical for wide area use. Freezing the gum also falls into this category. Treatment by pressure washers is usually quite effective, however because of the enormous quantities of water produced, it tends to pool and create large puddles and streams from the cleaning surface to some distance away. This is both messy and hazardous as well as creating the problem of having to cordon off a large area to clean a small one. So the answer is to clean at night - but that creates a problem with noise. Whatever time of day or night, huge amounts of water are wasted, up to 36 000 litres a day. The steam process, on the other hand, applied in combination with an environmentally friendly, pH neutral cleaning agent, leaves behind only a damp surface that dries in minutes. This patented process has been in use by InnoCleaning (owners of the GumBusters chewing gum removal technology) since 1999 and is fast catching on world-wide as the ideal clean up solution. Steam is injected with the detergent as it is released from the cleaning head and the gum is instantly heated by the steam to 175/180C. On chewing gum the effect is dramatic. The combination of heat and biodegradable detergent removes the stickiness from the gum, which is simultaneously dissolved. Steam also keeps water wastage to a minimum. One GumBusters steam cleaning unit will use only a maximum of 40 litres of water per day, enough to clean 300 square metres of chewing gum-covered pavement. These machines can also be mounted within a van for use wherever required. As the amount of water used is so small this can also be carried on board to create a completely self-sufficient unit. As well as on external surfaces such as pavements, concrete and stone, the GumBusters steam cleaning process is also suitable for internal flooring, carpets, upholstery and entrance mats. Because fresh sticky gum, although at first spat out onto the street, will always be trodden inside. Local authorities currently spend around 400 million a year on cleaning, of which a growing proportion is chewing gum removal. It is clear that the provision of a proven, effective gum removal service in the face of growing sales of the product itself, presents a lucrative market for contractors and that the high profile environmentally friendly solution using non-hazardous chemicals that steam cleaning offers is fast becoming the preferred option for local authorities. Particularly attractive to them is the fact that the steam option can be used even during busy shopping hours, so that local residents can actually see that the council is doing something about the problem.