Most-littered brands on Northamptonshire country road revealed after farmer's year of collecting rubbish

A farmer has made a list of the most-littered brands having spent a year collecting rubbish along a two-mile stretch of road in Northamptonshire.

Joe Adams collected 64 bags worth of bottles, packaging and cans on the B4036 near Daventry from March 2019 to March 2020.

The Long Buckby farmer then spent a day going through all 6,698 pieces of identifiable rubbish to create a spreadsheet of all the brands and manufacturers.

"I've kept all the sorted bags just in case any chief executives would like to roll up their sleeves and check it themselves," he said.

"I would like to put a disclaimer on this by saying that although I tried my best to be accurate the figures stated are only a guide and are approximate."

McDonald's was by far the most common brand, with 1,495 items found by the side of the road, while Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo were second and third.

Joe was surprised by how many brands are owned by multinational conglomerates he had never heard of like Modelez International, AB InBev and Suntory, all of which were in the top 10.

"A quick Google search of the top ten alone will tell you their combined net revenue figures for 2019 was over $180 billion.

"Is it really right that we see their rubbish everywhere and that individuals should be footing the bill for cleaning it up?"

In 2018, Joe spent 10 days collecting litter on the same road after Daventry District Council told him it could not fund it nor legally sanction the job.

The haul of 181 bags with rubbish from 30 years ago gave him the idea of a 'litter index' and billing the manufacturers for the clean-up as a way to improve the situation.

Obviously the customers, not the manufacturers, are littering but until they can prove who they sold it to, the firms need to take responsibility, Joe believes.

"Just like if you sell your car and don’t register it to the new buyer and they break the speed limit, it is you that will get the fine," he said.

Joe thinks there are several ways companies could link their products to the purchaser, such as a UV barcode that connects to the card payment or details being printed on the packaging.

But that would be a problem for the manufacturer to solve if they do not want to receive the fines, he added.

"What I would like to see is Government legislation that allows local authorities to fine the companies that produce the litter.

"The onus would then be on the offending companies to either clean it up or to link their product to the person dropping it.

"As a trial I would suggest DDC being able to fine McDonalds for each item they pick up - trying to take on the combined wealth of the food and beverage industry at once would be a brick wall.

"If that pilot scheme succeeds perhaps it could be expanded across other brands and councils, and countries! I'll be contacting my MP to discuss when things calm down a bit."

Joe Adams' top 10 littered brands

1. McDonald's - 1,495 items

2. Coca Cola Company (including Coca Cola, Monster, Costa Coffee etc) - 672

3. PepsiCo (including Walker's, Pepsi, Rockstar etc) - 557

4. Mondelez International (including Cadbury's, Fry's, Dairylea etc) - 359

5. Tesco - 304

6. Mars - 265

7. Red Bull - 229

8. Nestle - 216

9. AB InBev (including Stella Artois, Budweiser, Corona etc) - 162

10. Suntory (including Ribena and Lucozade) - 146