Keep Britain Tidy, Kevin Hollinrake – the ball is firmly in YOUR court

Written By Simon Clark

Yesterday The House magazine posted an article by Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake.

According to the MP for Thirsk and Malton, 'It’s time the tobacco industry takes responsibility for the clean-up costs of cigarette litter'.

The article follows a meeting in September between Defra and the tobacco companies which I wrote about here.

I quoted the Mail on Sunday which had reported that 'Tobacco firms are being warned they face tougher laws unless they do more to clear cigarette butts off the streets.'

Forcing the tobacco industry to pay for the cost of clearing up cigarette butts has been on the tobacco control agenda for years.

Now however there appears to be a coordinated campaign to bring it about and if it succeeds the cost will no doubt be passed on to the consumer.

One of the beneficiaries of such a levy would probably be Keep Britain Tidy which has long sought money from the tobacco companies for their own anti-litter campaigns.

No surprise then that KBT was quick to quote Hollinrake on social media:

"Five years ago, the tobacco industry made a pledge to play an integral role in cleaning up litter from its products, but nearly six years on very little has changed. It's time for 'big tobacco' to cough up."

Whoever posted that tweet has some brass neck.

Let me remind Keep Britain Tidy (and Kevin Hollinrake) of a few home truths. I've written about it often enough.

Five years ago the tobacco industry said it wanted to find a solution to the problem of litter but was finding it “very difficult to play a role”.

According to the then director of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control "has effectively stopped local authorities doing business with us on matters such as litter".

In January 2015 he told the Communities & Local Government Committee:

“Keep Britain Tidy decided in December 2013 that it would no longer have any activity with the tobacco industry whatsoever. KBT will not deal with the tobacco industry. Local government will not deal with the tobacco industry on litter.

"We need leadership at a local level and at the national level ... The board of Keep Britain Tidy passed a resolution in December 2013 that said it would not talk and not engage with the tobacco industry, which quite frankly is just preposterous …"

Perhaps Hollinrake is ignorant of this inconvenient fact but there's still no excuse for him to argue that 'months after that ministerial meeting [in September], the industry still prevaricates and delays using every trick in the book'.

The reality is that a few weeks ago the Tobacco Manufacturers Association launched its own anti-cigarette litter campaign called Bin Your Butt which has been rolled out in several cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

According to TMA director Rupert Lewis:

“The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness among adult smokers of the need to reduce cigarette butt litter and to ensure people are aware of their personal responsibility to dispose of cigarette butts appropriately when smoking outside of their homes.

If you see one of the #BinYourButt campaign digital displays, please take a photo and upload to social media using the campaign #BinYourButt and help spread the message."

Did Hollinrake mention the TMA campaign in his article? Of course not.

Meanwhile I've counted nine tweets on the TMA Twitter account promoting the 'Bin Your Butt' initiative and not one has been 'liked' or retweeted by Keep Britain Tidy or any other 'environmental' group, which says it all.

JTI has also been active, launching its own cigarette butt campaign in partnership with Keep Wales Tidy which appears to have a more open mind on working with tobacco companies if it helps the environment.

Call me cynical, but what Keep Britain Tidy wants is not a partnership with the tobacco industry but Big Tobacco's money.

Ignoring all this, Kevin Hollinrake had the cheek to conclude his article by insisting:

Imperial Brands, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International; the ball is firmly in your court.

I'd put it rather differently.

Keep Britain Tidy, Local Government Association, Defra, members of parliament:

If you really want to address the problem of cigarette litter stop playing silly games and work with not against the tobacco industry.

The ball is firmly in YOUR court.

Simon Clark
Previous

From the archive: Golden Nanny Awards
Next

Tales from a small city