Do you chew gum? And what do you do with it afterwards?

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A campaign group has recently been busy on the pavements in London's Oxford Street, marking every piece of discarded chewing gum with a yellow circle. The result is startling, with the pavement looking as though it has developed a particularly unpleasant rash - there are thousands of pieces of gum littering the street and getting stuck of the shoes of pedestrians. It has been estimated that the gum dropped on Oxford Street and Regent Street (the two busiest shopping streets in Central London) in a year would be enough to cover 12 football pitches! As you might imagine, the cost to the public purse of removing the gum is enormous, especially as this is a blight that affects street not only in London but across the country. I confess to being one of the righteous ones, in that I have never chewed gum in my life and neither have I smoked. I have never therefore been guilty of throwing either gum or cigarette ends on the street - or any litter at all if I can possibly help it. However, there are plenty of people who do, even when there are litter bins close at hand for the very purpose of receiving unwanted rubbish. How I wish that people would be more socially aware when smoking or chewing gum!