Street cleaning costs �35m in Wales

That is the stark message Keep Wales Tidy is sending to motorists who they say are using the road network as a "giant dumping ground".

They are launching a campaign to persuade mobile litter bugs to keep a grip on their rubbish.

As well as costing millions, Keep Wales Tidy says complaints about rubbish levels by visitors to the country raise the threat of deterring tourists from Welsh resorts.

Keep Wales Tidy director Bob Gilchrist said: "It is high time we started viewing car litter as a serious issue.

Rubbish..is having a potentially detrimental effect on our tourism industry Bob Gilchrist

"Around this time of year the Wales Tourist Board, the Welsh assembly and ourselves are inundated with complaints from visitors about the amount of rubbish on our streets and roads and what a terrible eyesore it is.

"So not only is it costing us �35m a year to clean Wales' streets and causing traffic delays during local authority cleansing work, but it is having a potentially much greater detrimental effect on our tourism industry."

He said roadside litter had increased as a throwaway culture grew.

A survey released on the same day as the campaign begins found mobile litter louts were the number one bugbear for fellow drivers.

Motorists from different social and economic backgrounds rated throwing litter out of a moving car the most annoying driving habit, with 77% placing it top, ahead of using a mobile phone while driving.

Keep Wales Tidy is distributing stickers to the assembly, councils, and bus, haulage and van hire companies to get the anti-litter message on the road.