The need to get rid of chewing gum immediately after use means that it is an item which is commonly disposed of irresponsibly, with gum staining present on almost three quarters of Wales’ streets.
Cleaning streets of gum is expensive and labour intensive. By law, chewing gum is defined as litter, but local authorities are not legally obliged to clean chewing gum staining. This means that many instances of chewing gum staining stay around for a long time as the synthetic product can take up to five years to break down.
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