A few of the estimated 300,000 pieces of used chewing gum that litter Oxford Street in central London. Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
Anyone who has had to scrape off chewing gum from the sole of their shoes, or the seat of their trousers, will have sympathy with the job councils face cleaning up the stuff, and which has led a group of 20 authorities to demand that the chewing gum industry help pay for the costly task.
They have also launched a campaign that points out that a piece of gum cost 3p to buy, but 10p to clean up.
The government dismisses the idea of taxing the industry for the problem as "absurd", and ministers instead set up a chewing gum action group with gum makers like Wrigleys - which is helping to fund three pilot studies to tackle the problem - to focus on a more on a cooperative approach.
The pilot studies are aimed more at the people that spit gum out, rather than that the manufacturers. When chewing gum loses its flavour, the message is to "bin it" rather than "gob it" ... or stick it behind your ears or under your desk.
A conference to assess the pilot studies is being hosted today by Encams, the charity behind the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.
Meanwhile Wrigleys and others are searching for what the Observer's Tim Adams calls the holy grail of gum manufacturers - biodegradable gum. The company has spent £5m trying to come up with a gum that dissolves on contact with pavements, so far without success.
