Dropping chewing gum could result in a fine

Men over 30, young adults and teenagers are the most likely to deliberately litter the streets of Belfast, according to research.

Those least likely to drop litter are mothers and couples over 45 whose families have grown up and moved away.

The findings were unveiled on Wednesday by Belfast City Council as it vowed to get tough with people who thrown litter.

It has launched a �300,000 campaign entitled "Litter. Don't Drop it - Stop it", which features television and radio advertisements, posters and a range of community and schools projects aimed at highlighting the problem.

People not prepared to change their ways will face tougher penalties from our new enforcement team Gerard O'Neill Belfast City Council

Councillor Gerard O'Neill said that while only 60% of people admitted to littering, certain research suggested most people had dropped litter at some time in their lives.

He said littering was now a major social problem.

"Belfast City Council does not dirty the streets, we spend �9m each year trying to keep them clean, which is considerably more than other cities of a similar size across the UK," he said.

"We are virtually scooping ratepayer's money off our streets and throwing it on a rubbish dump."

But he said the council would be issuing more fines to offenders.

"Research has shown that there are people out there who could be described as the careless majority, those who are willing to change their ways, and it is those people we are targeting.

"However, people not prepared to change their ways will face tougher penalties from our new enforcement team. Last year, we issued over 600 �25 fixed penalty fines for littering.

Litter laziness

"That figure is set to rise significantly with the recent appointment of a six person team dedicated to issuing on-the-spot fines, which will be increased to �50 at the end of March."

Almost 80% of the 500 people interviewed for the research said the main reason for littering was laziness, while about a quarter blamed a lack of bins and facilities.

Among the occasions when people admitted they were more likely to litter were when there was no bin at hand, if they were in an area that was dirty already, if they were at an event or if they were drunk.

The most common littering act people admitted to was throwing paper on the ground (40%).

However, other items were also dropped including cigarette butts (27%), fruit or food (23%), chewing gum (17%) and fast food packets (12%).