Keep Britain Tidy’s 12-month Love Where You Live pilot in Heckmondwike has cut food and drink litter by 16% and driven a 22-percentage-point rise in public satisfaction with local cleanliness, according to new data.
The programme, backed by KFC, McDonald’s, Nestlé and Mars Wrigley, used a behaviour change approach to tackle littering in the West Yorkshire town. Rather than relying solely on enforcement, the initiative engaged residents, businesses and community groups to shift attitudes and habits around litter.
The results point to significant commercial benefit for local businesses, with improved perceptions of cleanliness linked to increased footfall and spend. Keep Britain Tidy says the model is scalable and could be replicated in towns and cities across the UK.
The pilot ran for 12 months and monitored litter levels, public attitudes and business performance throughout. Organisers say the evidence base it has generated provides a compelling case for councils and brands to invest in behaviour-led approaches rather than purely reactive clean-up operations.
Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said the results demonstrated what was possible when communities, local authorities and businesses worked together with a shared goal.
The Love Where You Live programme has previously run in other UK locations. The Heckmondwike pilot is among the most comprehensively measured iterations to date, with data collected at multiple points across the year to track the durability of behaviour change over time.
