Efforts have been made to tidy up Dorset – and there’s a new campaign with a hard-hitting message aimed at people who throw their rubbish out of car windows.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) held litter picks in Dorset as part of its nationwide Green Clean initiative.

As well as helping communities clean up their green spaces, CPRE wanted to highlight the astonishing variety of discarded cans and bottles.

In Dorset, Green Clean was supported by schools, community groups and organisations including Litter Free Dorset, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Litter Free Purbeck, Wareham Wombles, Damers First School with The Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester, and West Dorset Conservatives.

The CPRE ‘reverse vending machine’ also visited Dorset which enabled people to dispose of, and receive cash for, drinks containers.

Litter Free Dorset has just launched a new campaign ‘Don’t be a TOS53R’ in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy aimed at those who toss their rubbish out of car windows – see panel below.

This year, the Government promised to ‘introduce a deposit return scheme in England for single use drinks containers. Data from the Green Clean events will help the Government as it designs the scheme, which it is hoped will provide a solution to recycling confusion and boost recycling rates for drinks container waste.

Volunteers taking part in Green Clean collected a total of 11,212 cans and bottles of all shapes, sizes and materials. Over a third of those collected were made from plastic, 50 per cent aluminium, 14 per cent glass and 1 per cent Tetra Pak.

While plastic packaging has been making the headlines, this data shows that two-thirds of all drinks containers

littered are made from other materials.

Of the plastics: 10 per cent were small bottles (below 500ml), 71 per cent were medium sized (500ml – average water bottle), 10 per cent were large (501ml-1.5l), and 9 per cent were considered extra-large (more than 1.5l).

Of the cans: 18 per cent were small (below 330ml – small energy drink), 29 per cent were medium sized (330ml – average fizzy drink can), and 53 per cent were large (more than 330ml – average beer can).

Of the glass bottles: 25 per cent were small (under 330ml – stubby and regular beer bottle), 42 per cent were medium sized (400-750ml – larger beer bottle), and 33 per cent were large (more than 750 ml – wine bottles and large spirits bottles).

CPRE says its evidence demonstrates there is no limit to the types and sizes of cans and bottles that are causing harm to our wildlife and natural world.

Samantha Harding, Litter Programme Director at the CPRE England, said: “By introducing a simple deposit system the Government has a golden opportunity to end growing scepticism around current recycling methods, collect and recycle more materials than ever right here in the UK, and ensure that those who produce the packaging rightly pay the full cost of recovering the materials that they produce. But it will only work if it is universal in the types of cans and bottles it accepts.”

“Deposit return infrastructure is the same for large plastic bottles as it would be for small plastic bottles, cans and glass – failing to set the system up to collect all that it can, will set the system up to fail. The Government is committed to tackling waste and boosting recycling and with this solution it has the chance to get things right.”

New campaign

The ‘Don’t be a TOS53R’ campaign has been designed to send a hard-hitting message to drivers and their passengers that our roads are not a network of litter bins - and that the owner of a vehicle can be fined up to £100 if rubbish is seen being thrown out of a car window.

Billboards, bus shelters and vans across Dorset will display the message.

New rules that came into force in April this year mean that local authorities can fine the owner of a littering vehicle without having to prove who threw the rubbish.

Litter Free Dorset is producing the campaign in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, whose recent research shows that a third of people don’t know that the vehicle’s owner can now be fined if someone else throws rubbish out of it – including cigarette butts.

Director of Dorset Waste Partnership Karyn Punchard said: “We are happy to support all campaigns that help reduce litter in Dorset including Litter Free Dorset and Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘Don’t Be A TOS53R’ campaign.

“Roadside litter is an eyesore, damaging to wildlife and the environment and costs us thousands of pounds in council tax to clear up every year.

“Most Dorset drivers and passengers take their litter home and wouldn’t dream of throwing it out of a car. But those that do should know that we can and do issue fines for these offences, and we have no hesitation in clamping down on this anti-social behaviour.”

Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton added: “The mindless act of tossing plastic bottles and fast-food wrappers out of car windows is doing damage to our environment and our wildlife.

“Or recent research shows that millions of small mammals such as voles and shrews are dying after being enticed into bottles and cans thrown on to grass verges.

“We need to get the message out there that littering is socially unacceptable and - regardless of who throws the rubbish - if it comes out of your vehicle, you are responsible.”