With more vehicles on our roads than ever before and a significant rise in “on-the-go” food and drink, roadside litter is an increasing issue in Wales. Our fast–paced lifestyle means it can often go unnoticed, but litter on the roadside is bad for us and our environment. It can affect our mental wellbeing, perceptions of safety and economic investment, as well as harm wildlife, block drains and pollute our soils, waterways and oceans.
Really rubbish roadsides
This year, we have been able to use our litter data to find out just how much of a problem roadside litter is. We looked at our 2025 litter survey data along A and B roads across Wales and we found something staggering – 98.8% of these roads had litter present! But why?
A common excuse for littering from vehicles is the desire to keep the vehicle clean and remove any smelly waste, but vehicles also provide a sense of anonymity and protection, meaning that people might behave differently behind the wheel and do things they wouldn’t usually do – like throwing litter! Also, due to health and safety, roadsides are particularly hard and expensive to clean. Lane closures are often needed for workers to litter pick safely, and this can cost thousands of pounds just for a few hours.
Putting roadside litter in reverse
Our volunteers already play a huge part in clearing litter from our roads, removing nearly 8,000 bags from our A and B roads in the last two years alone. Small interventions like car bins or butt boxes are affordable and effective ways to reduce littering from vehicles because they keep vehicles looking clean and smelling fresh, but we want to tackle the issue on a larger scale too!
Our Welsh election manifesto calls on Welsh Government to amend legislation to allow vehicle owners to hold responsibility for littering from their vehicle. We also support groups that are encouraging changes in the law to allow the printing of vehicle registration numbers on all drive-through take away packaging. Together, these changes could act as deterrents and strengthen enforcement powers across Wales.
Fortunately for us, roadside litter is preventable and every driver can put the brakes on roadside litter by driving their litter home.
