A petition has been launched by the Blaenau Gwent branch of Plaid Cymru to print vehicle registration numbers on takeaway packaging to discourage littering.

Fast Food outlets reopened in Wales on Monday 2 June. Since then there has been an increase in the litter in communities after visits to the drive-thrus.

The petition, already signed by over 3,000 people, calls on people to use bins or take their litter home and for the Welsh Government to make it compulsory for fast food outlets with drive-thru facilities to print car number plates on all packaging so that litter can be traced.

Llyr Gruffydd MS said: “The recent increase in littering across Wales has been a concern and a point of frustration for many people across Wales, including for many of my own constituents.

“It seems that fast food and littering tends to go hand in hand, and we need long-term solutions to tackling this issue.”

Keep Wales Tidy described the increase in littering since fast food outlets began to reopen is “disappointing” and follows a “wonderful” few weeks of “no rubbish anywhere”.

Louise Tambini, Keep Wales Tidy’s deputy chief executive said: “For the first few weeks of lockdown everything was wonderful. There was no rubbish anywhere.

“Unfortunately, as we’ve been allowed to come out for longer and to stay out, some people have begun leaving litter everywhere.

“We’ve had a lot more complaints… about litter being left in our parks and beaches.”

Dr Christian Dunn, an expert in micro-plastics from Bangor University, said even small changes to littering stretched far beyond it being an eyesore.

“What you may think of as just anti-social problem could have larger, bigger problems than you can actually even imagine,” he said.

“If you throw your plastic water bottle away then ultimately that piece of plastic could break up into smaller and smaller pieces.

“And the issue is we don’t know the full effects of those micro plastics. Research is being done to show that a little piece of plastic can leak certain chemicals which can be harmful.”

For more information and to sign the petition visit here:
https://www.plaidbg.wales/litter_petition

Photo: Fast Food packaging in Bangor just days after drive-thru’s reopened.