Keep Britain Tidy returns 13,000 rubber bands to Royal Mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... royal-mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More than 13,000 discarded red rubber bands will be sent back to the Royal Mail by an anti-litter campaign after being scooped off the streets by members of the public.

In one of the biggest exercises of its kind, people throughout the UK collected the bands - dropped by postmen on pavements and in doorways - after a national campaign by Keep Britain Tidy.

In April the organisation warned postal workers they could face on-the-spot fines of up to £80 (rising to £2,500 if a case went to court) if they were caught dropping the familiar red bands, which are used to hold bundles of letters. It asked people to collect any bands found on pavements and driveways and the charity is now set to bounce them back to Royal Mail in a giant see-through envelope.

Dickie Felton of Keep Britain Tidy said: "We were amazed that our campaign caused such a commotion. We received hundreds of letters stuffed with red rubber bands from across the country. Clearly people are fed-up with posties carelessly throwing these bands on the floor. We accept that dropping an elastic band is hardly the worst littering offence in the world, but nonetheless it is litter."

Felton said the bands were an eyesore when strewn on the ground, but also posed a serious choking danger to pets and wildflife.

Keep Britain Tidy is now set to return all 13,000 rubber bands to Royal Mail in a giant envelope to highlight the scale of the problem and allow them to be reused. Royal Mail currently spends an estimated £1m every year replacing rubber bands.

Felton added: "We are pleased that Royal Mail has acknowledged that this is a problem. Our campaign was covered in Royal Mail's internal newspaper Courier and we hope that Royal Mail continues to communicate to employees that dropping rubber bands is unacceptable."

Keep Britain Tidy has also today written to Royal Mail's chief executive with the offer of a meeting to further discuss the problem and ways to tackle it.

[DGP1]

Our campaign was covered in Royal Mail's internal newspaper Courier

I'll not have seen it then

And TBH 13,000 is not an awful lot for a couple of months of collecting, my office goes through a box every week and I believe the have 20,000 in them.

[pinstripe]

I think RM are onto a winner with this, we drop the bands, the public pick them up, post them to Keep Britain Tidy (using RM) and they return them to us. Hopefully they'll use Parcelforce. RM will make a packet.
Personally, I think Keep Britain Tidy should be more concerned about the amount of dog mess, fast food wrappers and general rubbish that are strewn all over our streets, rather than a few rubber bands, which I like most of us, do our best not to drop. But then again we are an easy target.

[stokes11eg]

Yes, maybe we should write to Mr Felton, suggesting that his next mission is picking up all the posties discarded
by R/m and send us back!

[Lounge Lizard]

13,000 suggests that only one post(wo)man in ten has dropped a rubber band.

[brothermagrew]

And singer Boby Vee would have loved it - Rubber ball I'll come bouncin' back to you..........

[dvbuk55]

And singer Boby Vee would have loved it - Rubber ball I'll come bouncin' back to you..........

Rubber bands aren't just good for bundling mail - I'll bet most of us could come up with another use - I know I can

[Stormproof]

And singer Boby Vee would have loved it - Rubber ball I'll come bouncin' back to you..........

Rubber bands aren't just good for bundling mail - I'll bet most of us could come up with another use - I know I can

You should be careful dvbuk you will cut your circulation off and things could drop off if that happens

[Big Daz]

I think RM are onto a winner with this, we drop the bands, the public pick them up, post them to Keep Britain Tidy (using RM) and they return them to us. Hopefully they'll use Parcelforce. RM will make a packet.
Personally, I think Keep Britain Tidy should be more concerned about the amount of dog mess, fast food wrappers and general rubbish that are strewn all over our streets, rather than a few rubber bands, which I like most of us, do our best not to drop. But then again we are an easy target.

Well said!!!!

[DGP1]

TBH I only use the bands once and then take them back and bin them but I've noticed recently that the bands are barely lasting the one time (one of them broke and hit a customer on the head the other day).

[dvbuk55]

And singer Boby Vee would have loved it - Rubber ball I'll come bouncin' back to you..........

Rubber bands aren't just good for bundling mail - I'll bet most of us could come up with another use - I know I can

You should be careful dvbuk you will cut your circulation off and things could drop off if that happens

I have no idea what you are referring to - I was thinking of a pickle jar top - what you do is put the band round the lid and hey presto it's opened in a trice - although one of my colleagues was a part time male stripper (no I swear it's true) and he explained how they managed on stage - I have to say I wasn't tempted to try it - not least of all because I couldn't find the right size elastic band

[BELIAL]

And singer Boby Vee would have loved it - Rubber ball I'll come bouncin' back to you..........

Rubber bands aren't just good for bundling mail - I'll bet most of us could come up with another use - I know I can

You should be careful dvbuk you will cut your circulation off and things could drop off if that happens

I have no idea what you are referring to - I was thinking of a pickle jar top - what you do is put the band round the lid and hey presto it's opened in a trice - although one of my colleagues was a part time male stripper (no I swear it's true) and he explained how they managed on stage - I have to say I wasn't tempted to try it - not least of all because I couldn't find the right size elastic band

Big head

[Judgee]

Wish I had time to go around picking up crap off the streets some people really need to get a life. As someone mentioned earlier in the post... why dont these people go round picking up dog turds.I'm sure they would find alot more than 13,000 then maybe they could post them all through Mandelsons letter box... with all the crap he comes up with I doubt he would notice a little extra on his doormat :mfo

[junkmale]

Well we can sleep soundly knowing the vanguards of justice are at work fighting this scourge of society.

Does it not occur to people that when you have a delivery service six days a week there may be some accidentally dropped bands?

But oh no! it's us selfish and scummy working people who have no regard for society.

FOR THE LAST TIME, STOP USING THE WORD POSTMAN IN PRINTED MEDIA WHERE NOT APPROPRIATE. IT'S POSTPERSON, POSTMAN/WOMAN OR POSTAL WORKER!