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Council chiefs are considering printing customers’ car registration details on fast food packaging in a bid to tackle littering.
Chris Howell, Swansea Council’s head of litter, parks and cleaning, admits the scheme has flaws but believes it can help curb littering by identifying those responsible.
Keep Britain Tidy estimates that two million pieces of litter are thrown away every day in the UK, which equates to 23 items of litter being dropped every second, costing the taxpayer £1bn each year to cover street cleaning costs.
Mr Howell, speaking at a meeting of the Corporate Delivery Committee on Climate Change, said: “The Welsh Government has explored with McDonald’s or their franchises whether or not they can print number plates on cars collecting takeaways from their tours, with view that this would discourage people from disposing of their materials (waste).”
However, he acknowledged which fast-food companies would be “first” with such an initiative could cause problems. He said: “If McDonald’s did it then people would just go to Burger King instead of McDonald’s because nobody wants their personal information printed on that packaging.
“I think it’s a really good idea, but it’s fraught with some difficulties at the moment,” he told Wales Online.
Two years ago, Plaid Cymru launched a petition calling on the Welsh Government to make it compulsory for fast food restaurants with accessible facilities to print car number plates on all packaging so litter can be tracked.
Plaid Cymru MS and Shadow Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs, Llyr Gruffydd said at the time: “Fast food and littering seem to go hand in hand and we need long-term solutions to tackle this problem.
“One innovative proposal pursued in a petition by a branch of Plaid Cymru is for fast food outlets to print customer numbers on packaging to discourage littering. This is exactly the kind of creative thinking we need to start a wider discussion about how both businesses and consumers can take greater responsibility for waste prevention.”
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