Millions spent cleaning up Cornwall's roadside rubbish 'could be better used elsewhere'
Clearing up rubbish from roadsides is costing Cornwall Council £5 million pounds a year, money it says could be spent elsewhere.
Ten tonnes of litter is dumped along Cornwall's main roads alone every year - that's around 2,000 bin-bags. The worst offenders are motorists leaving fast food packaging in lay-bys, or simply throwing it from their cars.
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It's a blight on what is a beautiful part of the country.
The most common finds are fast food packaging and drinks bottles strewn along verges. Some roads are harder to keep clean than others. Litter teams are due to clear both verges of the A30 up to the Devon border and back - that's 170 miles - twice a year.
It's costly as it involves a lot of workers and it's dangerous but they're finding they're having to return as often as every six weeks because of the volume of rubbish.
All fly-tipped waste gets examined back at the depot to find anything that might identify the offenders. The penalties can be up to £2,500 and Cornwall Council says it will take action.
Cornwall's roadside rubbish - the facts
These facts and figures come from Biffa, the firm contracted to deal with Cornwall's waste
We collect around 2,000 sacks of litter each year from the major trunk roads. This equates to about 10 tonnes of litter – the weight of two double decker buses or 13 cows.
Most common litter is: fast food packaging, hot drinks cups and plastic bottles. This is litter produced from the motorists using the road.
The unusual items we have found are: a toilet, part of a boat, a cooker and dozens of mobile phones.
It is a very dangerous job. The speed and noise of the vehicles passing by, sometimes with speeds of over 70 mph
The hours we spend litter picking, and the risks associated with it could be significantly reduced if motorists kept their litter in their cars and disposed of it at home or in litter bins
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