ACCRINGTON'S Arndale Centre has turned a sticky nuisance into a recycling dream with the installation of chewing gum bins.
The centre has installed four "Gummy Bins'' at its entrances in a bid to stop shoppers throwing their discarded gum on the floor which has plagued the centre for years.
Instead, once the bins are full with 200 blobs of chewing gum, the gum will be recycled and chopped into little pieces before it is re-used as a possible material for drainage systems, running tracks or football pitches.
Deputy manager of the centre, Liz Caddy, said: "We've had the bins for a couple of weeks and they already seem to be working.
"We always had problems cleaning gum but we really started to notice it when we had new floor mats installed.
"They became covered in gum which looked disgusting and were hard to clean, and it made it look like we didn't care.
"Hopefully the new bins will save on the cost of cleaning and will also help the environment by putting the gum to future uses."
People in the UK chew 935 million packs of gum a year and for every piece of gum, estimated to cost 3p, it costs a whopping £1.50 to clean up.
The bins, which cost £50 each, contain a cartridge designed to collect the gum. Once full the cartridge is replaced and taken away for recycling.
A spokesman for Gummy Bins said: "Our range of innovative, quirky bins offers a convenient way for people to dispose of their gum, knowing that they can make a positive contribution to the environment at the same time.
"Gummy Bins has achieved a major breakthrough in the long-standing chewing gum problem by identifying that, given the opportunity to recycle their gum, the vast majority of people would use a Gummy Bin rather than throw their gum thoughtlessly away."
