Drivers urged to throw rubbish out of their car windows

Drivers are being told to throw rubbish out of their car windows and into ‘funnel bins’ in a bid to make Britain’s roads tidier.

The system will be trialled this week at Lymm services on the M6 in Cheshire and Highways England is hoping it will reduce the amount of rubbish on the roads.

Each year, the government-owned company removes more than 200,000 sacks of litter – weighing a staggering 7,500 tonnes – from the side of Britain’s motorways.

And a recent study found one in seven motorists admitted hurling litter out of their vehicles in the past four weeks.

But Highways England is hoping their new scheme will encourage people to put rubbish in the user-friendly bins – without even leaving their car.

If successful, the agency will install the bright bins across other parts of the country, according to The Times. 

They are optimistic after the same bins reduced litter by 25 per cent when they were introduced to the Winchester services in Hampshire last year.

Transport Minister John Hayes was aware of the alarming rubbish earlier this year.

The newspaper reports he said Highways England’s anti-litter campaign was ‘not working’ and that the amount of rubbish on the roads is ‘appalling’. 

Each year, the government-owned company removes more than 200,000 sacks of litter after people throw rubbish from car windows 

A spokesperson for Highways England said: ‘The funnel bins make it easier for drivers to dispose of their litter responsibly without the need to get out of their vehicles.’

But John Read, founder of Clean Up Britain, said the new move is exactly what they are trying to prevent from happening.

He told the paper: ‘Getting people to chuck their litter out of the car, even into a designated funnel bin, is exactly the behaviour we are trying to stop.’ 

According to Keep Britain Tidy, cleaning up rubbish costs the taxpayer more than £850million a year.