New £4.6m plan to target litter hotspots and make city cleaner

Liverpool City Council has recruited a special team to tackle litter hot spots as part of £4.6 million investment to improve the cleanliness of the city. The funding has helped hire 18 additional street scene staff that will target trash troublespots.

There are plans to recruit more staff to enhance enforcement efforts against problems like flytipping. The Council handles over 1,300 instances of illegal dumping each month. This has prompted the implementation of additional CCTV surveillance to discourage and prosecute offenders.

Meanwhile, the local authority's Spring Clean campaign, which launched on March 15, is set to host more than 50 community events across the city over the next fortnight, with organisers aiming to double this number by the end of the month.

A survey by Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) in January 2022 revealed litter levels in Liverpool were almost three times higher than the national benchmark average. Since partnering with the environmental charity in the same year, the city has witnessed a 200% surge in community litter-picking activities. The City Council has also spent £9.5m this financial year to clean up litter.

The Spring Clean campaign will also target improving domestic recycling rates by urging residents to refrain from bagging items in blue bins. Around 23% of recycled waste in the city is lost to contamination.

The latest recycling performance tables for all of England's local authorities shows Liverpool has the second worst recycling rate in the country - ranked 332 out of 333 councils. The report suggests 31% of households in the city do not recycle.

Further city council initiatives include installing underground bins for over 27,000 households to combat black bag waste, supported by a recent £3.7 million allocation to boost the city’s domestic recycling rate. Liverpool Council installed the first underground super-bins in the network in October 2022.

Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “Everyone benefits from a cleaner city, and everyone has a role to play in making that happen."

Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, Cabinet member for Neighbourhoods, Streetscene and Communities, said: “We’re all beginning to see the impact of climate change and Liverpool needs to play its part. We need to become a zero-waste city - and that is going to require a radical shift in behaviour in what we buy and what we throw away.

"The Council is investing in making Liverpool cleaner but even with new staff and more enforcement we can only do so much. We all have a part to play in making our communities clean and tidy – and that that can start by getting involved in this Spring Clean campaign.”